


29 Days

by ashtraythief



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood Drinking, Fuck Or Die, Knotting, M/M, Supernatural Reverse Big Bang Challenge 2014, Vampires, Violence, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-03-12 07:02:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3347903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtraythief/pseuds/ashtraythief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty-Nine days stuck in ninety square feet would have been bad enough in itself, but that was before Jensen realized he had to share the cell with a werewolf. Despite being natural enemies, he and Jared have to find a way to work together to escape a group of hunters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2014 [spn_reversebang](http://spn-reversebang.livejournal.com/). I was so very lucky to snag the ever so talented [kinkajou](http://kinkajou.livejournal.com/41807.html) ([kjanddean](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kjanddean/pseuds/kjanddean)), whose original submission was incredibly inspiring. As always, it was a joy to work with you, hun! Thank you for cheerleading and creating so many beautiful and fitting pieces for this story! And of course the very hot porn (nsfw piece included in fic under a cut)! Go look at all her [awesome art here](http://kinkajou.livejournal.com/41807.html) and don’t forget to tell her how wonderful it all is! Ginormous thanks go out to fiercelynormal and linvro21 for their incredible beta skills. All remaining mistakes are only mine. Many thanks to alycat for late hour support and general hand-holding.
> 
> Please don't repost this story to other sites like wattpad. As the author, it is my decision where I host my stories.

 

 

 

 

 

[Masterpost](http://ashtraythief.livejournal.com/49108.html) (livejournal)

 

 

 

 

 

[ ](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/ashtraythief/58705288/48396/48396_original.png)

 

  
**Before**

 

Fog. Everything was blurry. Fucking dead man’s blood. Slowly cloying up his blood vessels, clinging like thick sludge - pink sludge, _who ya gonna call_ , his mind hysterically supplied - to his insides. His limbs felt like lead and he just. Couldn’t. Think.

There were people gripping his arms, dragging him. His feet were sliding over rough ground. It was dark. He thought. People talking. Their voices were harsh, but happy.

“You got him?”

“Yeah.”

“How much DMB did you give him?”

“Five injections.”

“Five?”

“He took out Andrews and Michaels before we finally got him. We’re not taking any more chances.”

“Alright, but that’s enough. We don’t want him dead.”

“Yet.”

Jensen heard the words, but they didn’t hold any meaning. He sailed through the air and then landed hard in a small space. There was a metallic thump and then nothing but darkness. He was too out of it to distinguish all the different shades of black.

He was bound, lying on his hands and the rope - he twisted his hands, pain shooting through his almost numb limbs. Drenched in hawthorn. Fuckers.

Hunters. And they knew what they were doing, too. Jensen needed to think about this, figure out why he was still alive, but his head was so heavy. Everything was heavy. The pain pressed against him, inside out, and he couldn’t think.

He didn’t have a heartbeat, but the dead man’s blood crawled inexorably through his body. He’d always wondered how that worked.

‘It is our power’, his maker used to say. ‘Magic’, said others. ‘Hell in your veins’, the hunters snarled.

Jensen didn’t know. Not that it mattered. There was nothing but pain and this insurmountable weight pressing him down.

The world went darker.

 

 

 

Jensen came to when he was being dragged again. He could feel the pressure receding, the pain dulling. He could wiggle his toes.

He tried to raise his head. It was dark, night dark, the world tinted in stark contrasts of blues and greys, pale moonlight filtering through the clouds covering the sky.

There was a house. Old. It smelled old. Jensen tried to turn his head and a fist hit him in the face.

“Hurry up,” somebody grumbled. “I think he’s waking up.”

He really wasn’t. His head was still so fuzzy, and it felt like gravity had multiplied tenfold. His wrists burned like they were lit on fire. Jensen wondered why he wasn’t dead yet. Hunters didn’t like to take prisoners unless they wanted information.

Jensen flexed his toes, tried moving his legs. He needed to get out of here.

They entered the building, dragging him down a narrow flight of stairs. He managed to move his feet a bit, but they still thumped painfully against the steps.

He heard the metallic creaking of a cell door being opened, old moldy basement smell pushing up his nose and then he was thrown again. His back and head hit something hard and he slumped down on the ground. Somebody laughed and then the metal screeched and the door fell closed.

“Make yourself comfortable, fang. It’s gonna be a while.”

A groan pushed its way out of Jensen's throat. Well, that was progress. He went back to moving his legs. He needed to get the fuck out of his bindings and then out of this fucking torture dungeon. Because he had absolutely no doubt that that was what it was.

He took a deep breath and was assaulted by the scents of old mold, wet earth, dried blood, piss, fear, and pain. He could smell more, the sharp scent of silver, the unyielding and suffocating one of iron. The iron pressed against his head, and he had trouble breathing. Yeah, Jensen really needed to get out of here.

 

 

 

When the hunters came back, Jensen’s body had worked most of the dead blood out of his system. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it must have been hours. He could see the first changes in the night sky from pitch black to a dark blue through the cell’s tiny window. Without food it was hard to counteract the poison and his stomach was growling. He hadn’t managed to loosen his bonds, but he was sitting upright on the cot and he could finally think clearly. He wished he couldn’t, because he was in deep shit.

The walls of his prison were lined with silver, the door made out of solid iron. Jensen wasn’t bothered by the silver, but it showed that the hunters had planned for all eventualities. The iron though, that was another matter. There was no way he was going to get out.

The hunters who approached his cell were rough looking men, dressed in khakis and heavy boots, mean smiles on their faces.

“Well, you look like you recovered,” the guy on the left said.

He had a ragged beard and a pony tail. Hairy.

“Still looks hungry, though,” the other one said, squinting at Jensen. Squint.

“Are you offering?” Jensen asked, trying to ignore how much his throat hurt. His insides were dried out, the walls of his esophagus rubbing together like sandpaper.

Squint made a face. “Fucking fangs,” he mumbled.

Hairy just laughed. “Well, if you put up a good fight, we might let you have some.”

Jensen raised his eyebrows in disbelief. He seriously doubted that.

“Heard fangs are picky though. Don’t like mutt,” Squint said and Jensen wondered what the hell the guy was talking about.

Hairy nodded. “Well, he won’t have much of a choice,” he said with a laugh that made Jensen wince. There was nothing worse than a guy thinking he could pull off the evil villain when he was really just a pathetic piece of shit.

“So what are we doing here, boys?” Jensen drawled, leaning casually back on his hands and ignoring the hawthorn ropes digging deeper into his skin. “Did you just come by to admire my pretty face?”

Squint scowled and Hairy shook his head.

“Nah. We’re just here to make sure you behave while we bring in your new roommate.”

That didn’t sound good.

“I’m fine on my own, really.”

Hairy’s grin was downright gleeful. “If you don’t like him, kill him.”

“Yeah, we ain’t gonna stop you,” Squint added and cackled like a hyena.

“You are completely insane, you’re aware of that, right?” Jensen asked, keeping his voice even.

Squint was just about to go for an angry reply when there was a commotion on the other side of the basement, way back where Jensen couldn’t see. It was spacious, but full of nooks and corners and the stairs ran right down the middle of it. There were workbenches and closets standing around in little work stations, littered with weapons - to kill and to torture, Jensen noted with disdain - and a surprising amount of technology for an old school torture dungeon.

Hairy took a gun from the wall and pointed it at Jensen. “Unless you want another shot of dead man’s blood, you’re gonna step back against the wall. And trust me, this is not a good time to get high.”

Jensen was just about to go for a scathing reply when a door in the back opened and the unidentifiable noise from before turned into shouts and snarls. Jensen took three steps back and hit the wall.

Frantically, he extended his fingernails and started clawing at the ropes. There was only one creature that made sounds like that. Hairy was right, Jensen would need all his faculties to come out of this alive.

The moon was full, and it had only just set. The lunar pull was still strong and that werewolf back there sounded downright rabid. Wolves were almost uncontrollable during the night of the full moon. If they weren’t with their pack or their alpha, they turned into mindless beasts - not that they were particularly sophisticated beings the rest of the month - and with all the silver around them there really would be no way to reason with that creature.

Jensen spared a quick look out of the window where the dark blue of waning night was slowly giving way to the lighter blue of dawn. Under normal circumstances he had no trouble handling a little doggy, but it was a full moon and the hawthorn had soaked into his wrists so deep, his hands would be useless for a while.

The wolf would still be close to the peak of his strength and was probably half out of his mind. Wolves had serious issues when they were cooped up during the moon. Really, their lack of control and erratic behaviour was the reason why the hunters were after anything non-human so hard in the first place.

Jensen inhaled deeply, smelled fury and confusion coming off the wolf and an overly sweet scent he couldn’t place at first. He was briefly distracted from the smell when he saw that another group of hunters was pushing a giant metal crate towards his cell. The crate was sitting on a creeper dolly, but the wolf inside was making such a ruckus, they had trouble pushing it.

The scent was stronger now and finally made sense to Jensen. The bittersweet note of wolfsbane filled his nose. The fucking mutts actually used it on themselves to get high, but in larger quantities it could drive them crazy.

Jensen listened more carefully to the wolf’s heartbeat and it wasn’t only fast, it was irregular, jumping all over the place. Great. The wolf was probably more animal than human right now.

The rope around his hands gave way the moment Jensen realized there was a little flap - a doggy door, what a pun - in his cell door. The hunters hooked the crate to the cell, opened the flap of the crate and the little door in the iron bars. Jensen had a millisecond to crouch down in a fighting stance before the wolf burst into his cell. He’d almost expected it to be a velociraptor.

Instead it was just a normal wolf, a little bit bigger than usual maybe, and teeth bared in a hungry snarl, eyes glowing yellow with animalistic fury. The wolf didn’t even stop, just barreled straight into Jensen.

They crashed into the back wall, tiny pieces of stone and dust raining down on them, while Jensen tried to grip the were by the neck and keep his canines away from his face. Jensen’s hands weren’t cooperating fully, pain shooting up from his wrists and Jensen cursed, trying to block the wolf with his elbows.

The stink of wolf and poison was almost overwhelming, droplets of spit flying from the wolf’s muzzle hit Jensen in the face, and then the fucker’s canines grazed Jensen’s shoulder, sending burning pain through his body. Werewolf teeth hurt almost as much as iron.

In desperation, Jensen pressed a hand against the wolf’s muzzle, feeling the skin on his palm tear, but managing to give himself enough room to get his leg up and kick the mutt away from him. The wolf crashed into the bars with a yelp and Jensen had a small moment of satisfaction before the fucker got up, slower this time, not because he was hurt, but because he was calculating. Something unsettlingly cunning was shining out of these yellow eyes and Jensen had a bad feeling about this.

The wolf was big and strong, stronger than most weres Jensen had ever encountered. Despite the stench of the poison, the pull of the moon and the adrenaline, his heartbeat was still fast but steady now. Intelligent eyes were watching Jensen carefully, tracking the movements of his chest and shoulders, the places where the first muscle twitches would reveal his next move. This wolf was a good fighter, skills so ingrained into him that even in his most animalistic state he remembered human techniques.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jensen bared his teeth, showing his own fangs, long and razor-sharp from decades of blood running past them. It almost looked like the wolf smiled in anticipation, before he jumped. This time Jensen was prepared, evading at the last second. His arm was grazed again because he’d underestimated the wolf’s speed and while he used the cot as a jumping point, he noticed the hunters out of the corner of his eye watching their fight in anticipation. Why they wanted them to kill each other was beyond him, but something about it was wrong. This was more than just entertainment to them.

There was no time to think about that, because Jensen had to stay sharp. The wolf almost managed to trap him in a corner and it took entirely too long for Jensen to get his teeth into the mutt for the first time.

When his fangs finally tore through the wolf’s side, scratching along the ribs and ripping a long stretch of skin open, his mouth was flooded with were blood. It was hot and rejuvenating, even though the taste made Jensen want to spit it out again.

Unlike like the sweet, addicting taste of human, always a note too soft, leaving a craving for more, were blood was dark and heavy, overwhelmingly rich, blocking everything out and leaving behind the taste of night and forest and earth. It was like being buried alive and choking on the earth of one’s prison.

For a moment, Jensen was overwhelmed and he received a gaping wound in his thigh for his wandering thoughts. He hit the wolf straight in the eye, feeling the delicate bone of the eye socket shatter under his fist and the mutt drew back.

Jensen could hear the bone healing immediately, and much quicker than he’d thought possible while he felt his own flesh knit itself together again.

He grinned wryly, the dried blood around his mouth cracking. “We’re going to be doing this the whole night, aren’t we?”

To his surprise there was recognition in the wolf’s eyes. Jensen had thought he might still be too far gone, but he could see the glimmer of humor next to the bloodlust in there. The wolf actually made a move with his head that could almost be interpreted as a nod.

Jensen barked out a laugh, never taking his eyes of the wolf. “ _Two immortals locked in an epic battle until Judgment Day and trumpets sound?_ ”

This time the wolf actually drew up short, and Jensen used that moment to throw himself at the were. The wolf managed to meet him halfway, raising up on his hind legs and together they hit the floor hard, claws and fangs digging into flesh. There was pain and blood, and this suffocating presence of living creature.

The wolf’s heartbeat was hammering loudly in the absence of Jensen’s own, his breath exploding out of him in damp huffs and loud snarls, ripping through Jensen’s silence. Jensen’s clothes were torn more than they were whole and there was a sizeable chunk of his ass missing.

“It figures a dog like you would be an ass guy,” Jensen pressed out while he buried his claws in the were’s chest as deep as possible.

The wolf howled, a sound so absolute it resonated through Jensen’s whole body. Then the were ripped himself back, blood dripping from his body and coating the floor of the cell in dark red, but he was still healing as quickly as before. He wasn’t tiring.

All the blood Jensen had absorbed during the fight was enough to get his own body up and running again. He inhaled, and while the stink of wolf was still cloying up his nose, he noted the scent of the poison was almost gone. Huh, maybe the mutt had bled it out.

“This is taking longer than I thought it would,” Jensen heard Hairy mumble from outside the cell.

The wolf’s ears twitched; he was listening too. Apparently he was more or less in charge of his faculties again. In an almost truce, Jensen and the were didn’t move, staring at each other while listening to the hunters.

“More fun for us,” Squint said.

Hairy snorted. “Don’t let the boss hear that. This ain’t fun, it’s necessary, and he hates it when things drag on.”

“Well, what do you wanna do about it, then?” Squint asked.

“No idea,” Hairy said. “Let’s just hope one of them actually kills the other, otherwise we’re gonna have ourselves a problem.”

Stilling for too long would draw attention, so Jensen started circling in the small cell. The wolf was smart enough to follow his lead.

“We could just kill ‘em now,” Squint said. “They’ve torn each other up well enough.”

Jensen couldn’t see it, his back to the cell door, but he heard the unmistakable sound of somebody getting hit upside the head.

“You fucking idiot, they’re healing right now. We’ve seen that you can’t fake a dog or fang kill, how often do I need to tell you that?”

Jensen had no idea why these hunters wanted them to kill each other, but he saw realization flicker through the wolf’s eyes and their feverish yellow glow dimmed to a light amber. Jensen cocked his head. He wasn’t a fan of the mutts, but he also didn’t like to kill for the sake of killing. It was a slope too slippery.

The hunters seemed to be playing a longer game here and Jensen was rather averse to giving them whatever it was they wanted. The wolf suddenly lunged and Jensen jumped up on the cot, snarling.

“Stop it.” It was too quiet for the hunters to pick up, but across from him the wolf froze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“They _want_ us to kill each other. I have no idea what sick game is going on here, but now that you’re not a crazy animal anymore, maybe we can stop with the fighting.”

The wolf snarled - they really didn’t like to be compared to animals - but stayed where he was.

Jensen was still glaring, but he relaxed his fighting stance into something a little more comfortable. “Think we could talk?”

That was the moment a door upstairs opened and a deep voice yelled, “Bowman, Dewey, get your asses up here.”

The hunters shot them an irritated glare.

“One of the fuckers better be dead when we get back down here,” Hairy muttered and then they left.

Jensen looked at the wolf expectantly. The were huffed before he shifted. His body kind of rippled and even with his excellent eyesight, Jensen had trouble cataloging exactly what happened. He’d never seen a wolf shift this close up, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to adequately describe it later.

The man he turned into was younger than Jensen had expected. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties, but looks were deceiving. Wolves aged much slower than humans once bitten.

He was tall and muscular, fitting with his animal appearance and his brown hair was shaggily falling into his face. His body was covered in blood and dirt, but the wounds had almost all healed. Jensen couldn’t help from looking up and down his entire body, because he was an impressive specimen. All over.

“Wondering if the rumors are true?” The wolf asked amused and Jensen looked up from his crotch with a glare.

“There’s nothing about you that’s even remotely of interest,” Jensen bit out, ignoring his morbid curiosity when it came to werewolf dicks. Instead he walked over to the bars, rattling the lock.

“Even remotely of interest?” the were repeated incredulously, but came to stand next to him, helping him push against the door. “Let me guess, you were bitten in 17-I’m-forever-stuck-in-my-moldy-century.”

“Better than being an uncultivated animal, who’s never read anything but the Steak House menu.”

“At least I don’t run around quoting Pirates of the Caribbean,” the wolf shot back.

“Says the guy who recognized it.”

“Fangs and pop culture. Somehow I always thought you’d only read Oscar Wilde and listen to Jazz.”

Jensen gave him a disgusted look and gave up trying to move the door. “Just how stupid exactly are you?”

For a moment they stared at each other, and the cell was full with their animosity. Then the werewolf grinned, popping an actual dimple in his left cheek. How ridiculous.

“Whatever, dude. Now that we’ve established we hate each other, and the fucking door is too strong for the two of us, what do we do?”

The were had sat down against the wall, legs stretched out and putting his naked body shamelessly on display. Granted it was an attractive body, Jensen was secure enough in his superiority to objectively admit that, but it was just so… vulgar.

“How about your name and what you know about this clusterfuck?”

The wolf eyed him with calculated interest. “Jared,” he said. “And what do you mean, what I know?”

Jensen snorted. “I saw you reacting when the hunters talked. They specifically want us to kill each other. Why?”

Jared drew his legs up, resting his arms on his knees. Not better.

“For such a proper speaking dude, your manners kind of suck.”

It took Jensen a moment to understand what Jared meant. “Jensen.”

Jared pulled a grimace. “From what century is that name?”

“It’s nordic.” Jensen rolled his eyes. “So,” he prompted to get them back on track.

“You from around here or traveling through?” Jared asked.

“That’s none of your business.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “I just wanna know how familiar you are with the local demographics.”

“Look at you, using big words,” Jensen said in mock approval. “And obviously I’m not from around here or the hunters would’ve never managed to catch me.”

Jared’s eyes narrowed at the implied insult. “If you don’t know squat, maybe you should wait with your judgemental shit until you have all the facts.”

Jensen waved his hands in a go-on motion. “Don’t let me stop you.”

“Whatever,” Jared said and for a moment Jensen felt like he’d been dumped in one of those supernatural teen dramas on TV.

“My pack lives north from here, the Morgan pack. You might have heard of it.”

Jensen had and he refused to be impressed by this in any way. Despite territorial disputes and the strengthening of the hunting community in the wake of new weapons technologies, the Morgan pack had prevailed for centuries. Jensen had met their Alpha, Jeff Morgan, once at the last big truce negotiations during the Second World War. He was an impressive man, for a werewolf, and Jensen knew that his pack was still powerful.

“Now, this is no man’s land,” Jared continued. “But two weres have disappeared from around here and there was one other attempt, where the were got away. He told his alpha the hunters weren’t going for the kill, just tried to take him, so my alpha sent me down here to investigate. And while I was scouring the woods, I found a dead vamp.”

Jensen looked at him sharply. “Who?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Jared asked irritatedly. “It was a vamp. It wasn’t like he was carrying an ID.”

Jensen ground his teeth together so he wouldn’t snap them at this insolent little shit. His kind tended to be rather solitary in nature, but Jensen had been around long enough to have forged connections all over the country.

“What did he look like?” he asked carefully.

Jared dismissively shrugged his shoulders. “Blond hair. Tall. Pale. I wasn’t really paying attention to his looks.”

“What did you pay attention to then?” Jensen asked icily.

“How he died. It was weird, man.”

“Weird? What do you mean, weird?”

Jared scrunched up his nose. “He was torn up alright, claw marks all over and head chewed off. But it was… off. The claw marks were too many, most of them hadn’t even started to heal.”

“Post mortem?” Jensen asked, thinking back how the hunters said you couldn’t fake a death by wolf or vampire.

Slowly, Jared nodded. “Yeah. And the scent was off. The scent of the wolf I mean, it smelled dead.” He looked at Jensen expectantly.

Jensen ran through the scenario in his mind. “So you think the hunters captured one of my kind and a mutt, killed them both, and then used the wolf claws and teeth to make it look like he’d killed the vampire.”

Jared gave him a condescending smile. “See, I knew you were more than just a pretty face.”

“Why, though?” Jensen asked, ignoring the backhanded compliment that was really just a straight up insult. “There’s a truce, and as far as I know there isn’t a powerful coven around here who could take insult. Too many mutts in the area.”

“Do you still get your news by carrier pigeon?” Jared asked incredulously. “Four months ago, up in Connecticut, the local coven almost annihilated one of the packs until the rest stepped in. A month ago, it got so bad in San Francisco, the FBI thought they had a ritualistic serial killer on their hands. We thought that is was just single vamps and weres getting in fights and the covens and packs retaliating, but this is a pattern. Especially since the hunters were always conveniently there during the fighting, ready to start hunting the packs the moment they were weakened. And we’re close enough to Austin to piss off the coven there if enough vamps turn up dead.”

That made sense to a worrying degree. One of the ways vampires and wolves had faced the new hunter threats had been a general truce, focusing their strength towards taking out the hunters instead of each other. It was smart for the hunters to pit them against each other.

Of course, vampires and wolves alike were cautious, and it was hard to fake a real murder.

“Were the other murders staged or real?” Jensen asked.

“All staged,” Jared said. “That was the only reason why the fighting stopped. They thought they’d made a mistake, but it obviously was on purpose.”

Jensen nodded. “So now these hunters want to make sure it’s real and they don’t really care who kills who.”

“Yep.” Jared popped the ‘P’ like an annoying teenager.

“Well, thankfully you got your shit together. They can’t exactly force us.”

Jared tilted his head. “What if they give you the choice: kill me or they kill you?”

“I won’t do it.”

The wolf was so surprised, he let his too-cool-for-everything-facade slide. “You wouldn’t?”

Now Jensen had to roll his eyes. “No, of course not. They would never let me live either way and I’d prefer to die without doing a hunter’s dirty work first. Trust me, if I’d think it would get me out of here alive, I would tear you apart without hesitation.”

The wolf actually laughed. “I should’ve seen that one coming. In case you’re worried, I wouldn’t kill you either.”

Jensen raised an eyebrow in a way he hoped conveyed how unrealistic he found that scenario. Judging by Jared’s glare, he thought he succeeded.

“The important thing is,” Jared continued, eyes glowing yellow in anger, “what do we do now?”

“We get out of here.”

“No, really?” Jared asked, opening his eyes comically wide. “That’s such an awesome idea, never would’ve thought of that myself.”

The fangs in his jaw were itching to descend, so Jensen took a deep breath to calm himself. The assault of wolf and blood didn’t really help with how he was feeling, but it distracted him from wanting to kill Jared. It had been a long time since someone had riled him up like that. Jensen blamed the circumstances.

“Okay, smartass, how about instead of asking stupid questions, you make a useful suggestion?”

Jared leaned forward with an arrogant grin on his face when the door to the basement opened. They both froze, straining to hear. Several people came down the stairs.

“Five heartbeats,” Jensen whispered to Jared who gave him a disgusted look.

“They’re people.”

“No,” Jensen said coldly. “They are hearts waiting to be ripped out of their chest.”

Jared muttered something that sounded like _dramatic_ and _only the cape is missing_ , but Jensen was back on focusing on the people.

He recognized Hairy’s and Squint’s heartbeats, but the other three were new. One of them was quicker. Excited. Not good.

Then Jared growled, canines lengthening. Fuck. Fucking mutts.

 

 

[ ](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/ashtraythief/58705288/46219/46219_original.png)

Stuart. Jared would recognize that scent anywhere. It was seared into his brain and it flung him back in time immediately. He was ten years old and standing in a smoldering heap of ashes.

_Looks like we missed one._

_We have a code._

_Behave kid, or we’ll find you again._

Jensen spoke, but Jared couldn’t hear the words. All his senses were focused on Stuart.

He had aged, of course he had. He was still fit, put together, an adult now. Lines that didn’t come from laughing were etched deep into his face. Jared wouldn’t have recognized him without the scent. Except for that smug expression, that was still the same his teenage self had worn. He was decked out in full hunter dress, khakis and a Henley, gun belt and a crossbow in hand.

Showoff. Jared thought it was a testament to how far he’d come he was still able to think snark, even though everything inside him wanted to jump, rip the guy open and spread his intestines across the floor. But he was in a cell, there was no getting out. Jared wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of jumping heedlessly against the bars like an animal.

“What’s going on here?” Stuart asked in his light cultivated voice, like he was inquiring about the state of a flower bed. “Why are they both still alive?”

The two goons from earlier looked everywhere but Stuart and the woman and the man who had come with him looked disdainfully at the cell, like it was containing two cockroaches instead of Jared and Jensen.

“I understand your puzzlement,” Jensen said mildly and it was kind of satisfying hearing that infuriating tone directed at someone else. Someone he hated.

“I was quite sure there would be no reasoning with a mutt, but apparently miracles do happen.” Jensen’s full lips were quirked in a surprised-but-what-can-you-do-smile.

Stuart smiled back just as mildly. “So you couldn’t handle him and talked him out of killing you. You must possess much of your kind’s charm.”

Jensen scoffed so condescendingly that the goons actually flinched and Stuart’s entourage bristled. The vamp had quite the talent of pissing people off; Jared was glad it was not just him.

“You’re not very good at what you do, are you?” Jensen asked, referring to the fact that a vamp’s glamour didn’t work on wolves.

Stuart looked around in surprise. “You’re in the cell, are you not?”

“And alive.”

“Not what I would call it,” the woman said, while the dark-haired man started to speak.

“For now. If you want to stay that way, I suggest you kill the mutt. Or we kill you.”

Since Jensen didn’t have a heartbeat, Jared had no way of telling if the vamp was actually as calm as he looked.

“No, you won’t,” Jensen said dismissively.

There was still too much anger in Jared’s system, his canines long and sharp in his mouth, so he was glad Jensen had taken over the conversation. And he had to admit, the vamp was doing a good job. Jared was wolf enough to admit that.

Stuart had raised his crossbow and nodded at the arrow cocked in it. “Laced with dead man’s blood.”

Jensen just raised his eyebrows.

Stuart shot.

The arrow hit Jensen in his leg, which had been casually outstretched from where he was sitting on the cot. Jared saw the flinch, but he wasn’t sure the humans could pick it up with their eyes. Calmly and slowly, Jensen gripped the arrow and pulled it out of his leg.

“Cute,” was all he said. He was cold as ice, and Jared was impressed against his better judgement. Of course he was cold, he was a fucking vamp. It wasn’t like the bloodsuckers were actually able to feel any kind of emotion besides those that came from inflicting pain and power.

“The next one is gonna hit your heart,” Stuart said, already reaching for another arrow.

Jesen actually laughed, short and harsh. “My heart is dead and black. You do your worst, hunter, but unless you come in here and chop my head off, you can’t kill me.”

Looking slightly surprised, Stuart turned to Jared. “What about you, dog? You want to get a silver bullet to the heart or kill this fang?”

Jared bared his teeth in a feral grin. “What the vamp said.”

The woman cocked her head to the side. “Maybe they have some Romeo-and-Juliet kind of thing going on?”

“Bet the fang’s Juliet. Prissy enough,” the goon with the ponytail said.

Jensen’s snort collided with the woman casually walking over to Ponytail and clocking him in the face. “Why don’t you keep your trap shut, you misogynistic piece of shit? You’ve screwed up enough already. If you hadn’t taken so fucking long getting them in there during the last full moon, we wouldn’t be having this discussion in the first place.”

Ponytail stumbled back, looking outraged at Stuart. Stuart only shook his head. “Alaina, was that really necessary?”

Alaina’s eyebrow-raise rivaled Jensen’s and Stuart put up his hands placatingly. “Fine. Can we focus on matters at hand now? Anybody willing to tell me why you two won’t kill each other or shall we just start shooting until one of you makes the first move?”

“Well, first off,” Jensen started, an evil glint in his eyes that made Jared think nothing good was coming, “Why do I get shot in warning and he doesn’t?”

Jared wasn’t sure if Jensen wanted to test his promise or piss him off, but he didn’t have time to think about it before Stuart raised his hand and a bullet hit Jared straight in the chest. It was pure silver, agonizingly painful, but it wouldn’t kill him. Jared toppled over, trying to breathe through the pain and concentrating all his focus on his chest, trying to make himself heal fast, push the damn bullet out of his body.

“Satisfied?” he heart Stuart ask.

“Very,” came Jensen’s smug answer.

“Fucking fang,” Jared bit out. He extended his claws and dug them into the bullet hole. For a few seconds the pain was worse, burning through his chest, but then he got ahold of the bullet and pulled it out. It fell to the floor with a metallic clang and Jared could breathe again.

When he looked up, the goons stared at him in wonder and Alaina and the other guy were eyeing him sharply. Stuart, it appeared, had turned his attention back to Jensen, but Jared knew the asshole missed nothing.

“Now, about this silly not-killing business,” Stuart continued in a businesslike manner.

Jensen nodded with a regretful expression, mocking Stuart’s pretend sincerity. “Yes, well, I honestly don’t care what you threaten me with, but the day I bow down to a hunter’s will will never come. So kill me if you must. Pump me full with dead man’s blood if that gets you off. But I swear to you, there is nothing you can do to me that will make me become your servant.”

“You say that now,” the dark haired man said with a hard smile.

Jensen smiled pityingly. “I know that it’s quite hard for your human brain to understand the concept of inner strength and backbone, so blinded are you by pain and mortality, but trust me. I’ve seen it all. I’ve felt it all. What you think you can do is of complete insignificance.”

“You fucking bloodsucker,” the hunter shot back, expression furious. “Think you’re so smart, so much better than us, because you’re older? Because you lost everything that makes you human and you’re just a cold walking corpse? Let me tell you somethin, you fucking-”

Stuart raised his hand. “Benito. That’s enough.”

Jared still marveled at Jensen’s speech. “You were a school teacher in the eighteen hundreds, right?”

The look Jensen gave Jared did nothing to dispel his guess. He couldn’t help but laugh, and the hunters looked at him like he was going crazy. Maybe he was. Jared wasn’t sure. This whole situation was like a giant fucking trip, like the Christmas Chad had gotten him drunk on wolfsbane for the first time and they hadn’t known how much they could handle. Obviously they had overestimated themselves.

The crossbow was raised again, this time at Jared.

“Silver arrow, laced with wolfsbane. You sure you don’t want to kill that arrogant piece of dead meat?”

If there had ever been the tiniest chance of Jared actually considering killing Jensen, it had disappeared with Stuart showing up.

“I will never do a single thing for you, asshole. But I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll find a way out of here and I will paint the walls with your insides.”

Stuart raised his eyebrows again. “My, young puppies are always so emotional.”

“Dog jokes. How original,” Jensen commented dryly.

Not like he hadn’t used them himself, but Jared wouldn’t mention that now.

“Well,” Alaina said, raising her shotgun. “These two are entirely useless. Let’s just shoot them until they’re out and then chop them into tiny pieces.”

She fired three shots and this time, Jensen did topple over. The stench of death filled the room. The cartridges were probably filled with buckshot and dead man’s blood. Jared leaned back and watched the show. It was more than a little satisfying to see that smug vamp writhe in pain.

Jared wasn’t worried about him dying; he’d fought Jensen and the guy healed fast and was very strong. He was either ancient or had an incredibly powerful maker. Whatever it was, Jensen had been right. The only way to really kill a vamp that strong was taking the head off.

The hunters clearly didn’t know that because they shot a few more arrows into Jensen until he lay motionless on the cot.

“Kill him,” Alaina said. “Even a puppy like you can take him out now. You do that, and we let you live.”

Jared let out an incredulous laugh. She joined him.

“Fine, we’ll kill you either way. But I promise I’ll make it quick if you kill Dracula over there.”

Jared gave her his most charming smile, the one he knew made his dimples pop. “You can threaten me all you want, but I won’t kill him. Because I know what you want, and you’re not getting it.”

“And what’s that, baby?” she asked.

Jared spread his arms. “You want us to kill each other, so you can force a war between the packs and the vamps. You tried staging kills already, all over the country. But it doesn’t seem to work too well, does it? We always figure out it’s you. Because you can’t fake a werewolf kill. And you can’t fake a vampire kill. So now you want the real deal.” He watched in satisfaction as her face turned from incredulous to furious. He leaned forwards, grinning at her, “Forget it. I won’t do it.”

“I’ll tear your jaw off and rip your claws out an then I’ll shred that vamp over there.”

“It’s still gonna smell wrong. Dead. And before you think of poisoning us and doing it then, well that’s also something we can smell. And lady, by now everybody is on high alert. You tried up north and in San Francisco and you failed. Another attempt here and everybody will just automatically assume you are the killers, even when you’re not.” Jared grinned. “Cause that’s what happens if you cry wolf one too many times.”

He thought he could hear a pained laugh from the cot, but it was too quiet to be sure Jensen was conscious enough to be amused.

Alaina fired her gun and it hurt like a bitch, but Stuart ordered her back.

“Unfortunately, you’re right. But it doesn’t matter. You see, these walls are laced with silver and iron. It will start to affect you soon.”

Jared shrugged his shoulders. “It’ll bother us sure, but we can handle it,” he said honestly.

“And if we shoot you up with wolfsbane? When the full moon comes? You won’t be able to control yourself and you’ll have the strength to kill him.” Stuart smiled pleasantly. “Usually I’m not a patient man, but this will be well worth the wait.”

Jared stared at him, horror spreading through him. Stuart was right. This far away from his pack, enough wolfsbane during the full moon and even he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

Stuart’s grin sharpened, then he turned to the goons. “Make sure our guests are well fed. Well, the dog. The fang will just have to make due with what’s there. I want to see a good match by the next full moon.” With that he turned around and left.

Benito followed him, but Alaina remained behind, addressing the goons. “Get them into the other cell. I don’t want them stinking up the place.”

Jared was as confused as the goons looked.

“The cell for long-term prisoners, you idiots,” she said.

“But how do we get them there?” Squint asked.

Alaina rolled her eyes. “It’s not like the fang can move right now.”

“But the dog…”

“Oh my god, how incompetent are you?” She raised her gun and a bullet hit Jared straight in the head. He could feel the bite of the silver, then another bullet hit him and the world went dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Jared came to, he was lying on hard concrete. Huh, that was new. He slowly looked around and realized they had indeed been upgraded.

“This is a nice change,” he rasped out.

There was a hoarse laugh from behind him. “Yeah, it’s almost like the Hilton.”

Jared rolled his eyes and sat up with a groan. His head hurt like a bitch, but the bullets were out. Head wounds were always nasty in the aftermath, giving him a raging headache.

Their new lodgings were just a little bigger, but in the back there was a metal toilet with a drain right next to it. Looking up, Jared found the showerhead. There was a wash basin, a piece of soap and two tooth brushes, no tooth paste. Awesome.

“Thank fuck we can’t get cavities.”

Jensen just grumbled, still lying motionless on the cot. It looked so unnatural, it took Jared a moment to realize the vamp wasn’t even breathing. He knew that technically fangs didn’t need to breathe, but all the ones he’d ever met did it nonetheless.

“You alright?”

That got a reaction. Jensen turned his face, even paler than before, towards Jared. His eyes were bloodshot, dark lines weaving through the white.

“You care?” he asked.

Jared snorted. What an ass. “I’d like to know if I’m going to be sharing my cell with a corpse soon. Or, well, with a dead corpse.”

“Dead jokes. Aren’t you just a riot?”

Jared didn’t answer, stubbornly waiting for Jensen to answer the question.

The vamp finally sighed. “There was a lot of dead blood on the arrows. I haven’t eaten in a while, so it takes me longer to get it out of my system.”

The mention of Jensen’s diet brought Jared up short. “Shit.”

“What now?” Jensen asked, voice even more annoyed than before.

“They’re gonna feed me,” Jared said slowly. “But they’ll expect _me_ to feed _you_.”

“I know.” Jensen’s voice was full of disgust. “Maybe there’ll be rats here,” he added, suddenly sounding a bit more hopeful. “That’d be better.”

Jared sat up, looking at Jensen incredulously. “You’d prefer a rat over me?” He wasn’t exactly sure why he was offended, it wasn’t like he wanted the vamp to drink from him, but seriously, a rat?

“To use words you’d understand,” Jensen said haughtily, before he turned his head back and closed his eyes. “Werewolf tastes like ass. Now let me rest.”

The douchebaggery truly knew no bounds. Jared wasn’t sure why he was still surprised that there was a whole new level of rude. Jensen had descended into his unnatural stillness again, so Jared got up to take a shower. He was still caked with dirt and blood and felt just overall gross.

The water was cold - of course - and the soap smelled weird. Kind of old. He still scrubbed until his skin turned pink for a moment and then realized that of course there weren’t any towels. No towels, no clothes, and Jensen was lying on the one cot in the cell. Great.

Jared shifted into wolf form, shook his damp fur and then curled up in the corner where the draft wouldn’t be coming in through the cracks in the wall. He didn’t get cold easy, but he was coming down from an adrenaline-fueled healing rush. He was about to crash hard.

 

 

The next hours weren’t fun. Jared shivered for a while and when that receded he became aware of the gnawing hunger in his belly. The vamp still hadn’t moved.

Jared was cold, he was hungry, and he was this close to freaking out. He was trapped in a cell with no visible way out and some crazy-ass hunters wanting to turn him into vampire chow. Not to mention that the vampire in question was a giant asshole. A giant, stuck-up asshole. It couldn’t be worse. The density of silver in the cell walls was so high, Jared couldn’t feel any of the pack bonds, not even the one to his alpha that was always there, no matter how many miles separated them. Jared was truly alone. With a fucking bloodsucker. He hadn’t felt this desperate since his family’s death.

The first cell had at least had a tiny window, this one didn’t. The only light was the dusky light from the basement. He wouldn’t even be able to see the moon. In his desperation, he began pacing the cell, up and down, along the bars, around the toilet, past the cot and back again. While he was focusing on the movement, he didn’t have to think how hopeless his situation seemed.

“Is it so hard to sit still?”

Jensen’s voice was startling in the silence.

Jared shifted to answer. “You don’t sound like you’re getting better,” he said instead of replying to Jensen’s comment.

The vamp was quiet for so long, Jared thought he wouldn’t speak again.

“I know.” Jensen opened his eyes again and raised a hand in front of his face. One of the arrows had hit him in the hand and there were still dark streaks of dead blood visible under his skin.

“Why?” Jared asked. He was just curious. Really.

Jensen let his hand fall to the cot again. “Too hungry.”

Okay, Jared did not want to do this. At all. He himself was starving. And he didn’t care how Jensen felt. Except… it was really creepy to share is cell with a corpse that behaved like a corpse. Not to mention boring.

Slowly Jared got up. It wouldn’t hurt too bad and he’d heal, but it was the principle of the thing. Giving his blood to a fang. Jared shuddered. Fucking leeches, living off other beings. Besides, Jensen was a grade A asshole.

There didn’t seem to be another way though, and if Jared wanted Jensen’s help getting out of here, he’d have to feed him sooner or later. Best get it over with.

“Okay, open wide.”

Jensen’s eyes snapped open, staring at Jared. “What?”

“You’ve got to eat. At some point. So how about we get it over with? I mean, either I let you starve and I’m on my own, or I give you my blood and you help me get out of here. So.”

Jensen looked like he was about to bite into a lemon.

“Dude, do you think I want you sucking on my arm?” Jared asked, getting fed up with Jensen’s attitude. He was trying to help him, dammit.

“Yeah, I’m not putting my mouth on your skin,” Jensen said, lips curling in disdain.

Then he reached up, putting his cold, dead hands on Jared’s arm and extended one delicate looking nail into something that was probably supposed to be a claw and slit Jared’s wrist open.

“Ow.”

“Don’t be such a baby.”

Slowly, the blood started dripping out of the wound and Jensen brought Jared’s arm down until it was only an inch from his mouth and opened it.

“It’s not gonna work like that, I’ll heal and-”

Jensen didn’t respond but he didn’t need to. Jared was _not_ healing.

“What the fuck?”

He yanked his arm back, inspecting the wound.

The little blood he’d ingested had apparently given Jensen enough strength to roll his eyes.

“Have you never been in a fight before, puppy?”

“Not you too with the dog jokes. And yes, I have, but it was never like this.”

Jensen shrugged his shoulders almost imperceptibly. “The stronger we are, the longer it takes others to heal from our wounds.”

The cut was slowly closing. Okay, that was okay. Jared would heal slower, but he would heal. Reluctantly, he stretched his arm out again.

“Okay. Let’s get this shit over with.”

Jensen took his arm without arguing.

 

Jared wasn’t squeamish about blood, but he didn’t need to watch Jensen drinking his. When he started getting light-headed, he tried to hold out, because Jensen had been comatose for hours, but when spots started dancing in front of his eyes, it was enough.

“Dude, that’s enough.” He tried to pull his arm back and for a second Jensen’s hands tightened to an iron grip, before he let him go.

Jared stumbled back, landing on his ass. Jensen laughed hoarsely. Fucker.

“How about saying thanks?”

Jensen scoffed. “The only reason you’re doing this is to survive. Besides, you taste disgusting. Even for a mutt.”

Jared was so pissed, it took a while for him to realize the implications of the words, but then he was up in a crouch and baring his teeth at Jensen.

“And how many of us have you tasted, exactly?”

The vamp didn’t even flinch. He sat on the cot, back to the wall and legs crossed in front of him. His skin color looked better now and the black lines had disappeared from his body and his eyes.

“Too many,” he said coldly. “I avoid your kind whenever I can. Not the company I prefer to keep.”

“Not the company I prefer to keep,” Jared parroted affectedly. “Ponytail was right, you have such a stick up your ass.”

Jensen scowled. “His name is Bowman.”

“Do you honestly think I care what the fucker’s name is?”

“No, of course you don’t,” Jensen said, like he was resigned to the worst possible thing that could happen, ever. “You are young and stupid, and so emotional, of course you don’t think it is necessary to learn as much about our captors as possible. Because you probably think we’ll just get the magical chance to fight our way out of here.”

In all honesty, Jared hadn’t thought about logistics yet, but he wasn’t going to admit that to Jensen.

So instead he said, “Could you be any more of a cliché?”

And there it was again, Jensen’s eyebrow of appalled disapproval. “What?” he bit out angrily.

“You just bared your teeth at me because I insulted you,” Jensen said and the corners of his mouth turned up into a disgustingly smug smile. “You don’t have a leg to stand on.”

“Fuck you.”

“And so eloquent.”

Jared threw his hands up in exasperation. “Oh my god, can you just shut your stupid mouth for one minute?”

Jensen’s eyebrow raised another millimeter before his face settled into a stony mask of bored indifference. And really, Jared needed to stop thinking about Jensen’s facial expressions in such a detailed manner. It was just a surprisingly expressive face for a dead guy.

He closed his eyes and tried to find a comfortable position, but the ground was hard and grainy, and while he wasn’t bothered being naked around someone, it was a little cold. So Jared shifted back into his wolf form. Jensen mumbled something that sounded like _pouty teenager_ , but Jared decided to take the high road and nap instead of ripping the fang’s throat out.

 

 

 

 

While Jared slept and snored - really, the only thing missing was the farts, and Jensen was sure he’d be graced with them sooner or later - he tried to think.

This was without a doubt the worst situation he’d ever been in and if they didn’t find a way out, he’d die down here - in a tiny cell with a mutt as his only company.

Their new cell was definitely designed to keep someone semi-comfortable for a while. He was really glad for that, because sharing his cell with an unwashed dog - he’d probably end up killing Jared just to get rid of the stink. Now that he was freshly showered, it was almost bearable.

The toilet was out in the open which was unfortunate. Jensen’s body absorbed the blood he consumed, but Jared would eat real food. Yeah, he wasn’t looking forward to that at all.

They only had one cot, but dogs didn’t belong on furniture anyway.

His eyes flitted back to Jared. He was the most infuriating person Jensen had met in a long time and that was saying something. The mouth and mind of a high school student and his emotions all over the place. That would not be helpful if they tried to escape. And they would need to get out within the next twenty-eight days, before the next full moon came.

When he’d asked the hunter to shoot Jared, he’d wanted to see how much he could really take. Judging from Jared’s reaction, he almost certainly had to be a born werewolf. They were rare nowadays. In the initial hunter rush that followed the invention of the semiautomatic weapon, a lot of the old families, too arrogant to prepare for the new threat, had perished.

Morgan’s was one of those left, and there were others, but their numbers were few. Jared being a born wolf would be an advantage and a curse at the same time. It made him stronger, and more enduring, making him a bigger asset for getting them out of here. But it also meant that if they didn’t make it, he’d pose a greater danger to Jensen during the full moon. Jensen honestly wasn’t sure if he’d be able to keep a born wolf jacked up on wolfsbane and the full moon off of him without killing him.

If they didn’t find a way out or someone came to get them out, the hunters would get their wish.

 

 

The sun started to set. Almost a day now since Jensen was taken. It felt like an eternity. Dewey, formerly known as Squint, came to bring them food.

“Any chance you could get him some clothes?” Jensen said, jerking a thumb towards Jared, thankfully still in his wolf coat. “I don’t need to see that the whole day.”

Dewey just laughed, stayed safely out of reach and threw a McDonald’s bag in front of the bars before he left again.

“Okay, first of all,” Jared said, after he’d shifted back. “My body looks awesome. And don’t even pretend you didn’t check me out, because you totally did.”

Jared got up and actually shook his ass at Jensen. And yes, it was a nice ass. But that was beside the point.

“Well, your stupidity and immaturity frankly make it impossible to appreciate your form in any way.”

“ _Frankly_? Who even says shit like that?”

“People with a bigger vocabulary than the latest episode of Jersey Shore.”

Jared just gave him a blinding smile. “Methinks the fang doth protest too much.”

After bastardizing Shakespeare, Jared reached out through the bar to get the food and sat down, again doing nothing to cover up his junk, and proceeded to wolf down the fast food. Bad pun intended. Because that was what Jensen’s life had come to.

“You eat like an animal.”

Jared grinned at him, sauce covering the tip of his nose and a smattering of salt in the corner of his mouth. “Hey, you already made up your mind about me. Why try to change that?” Then he let out an ear-shattering belch and continued eating.

Jensen looked up to the ceiling and thought he really didn’t deserve this. He might not be a saint, but he refrained from killing the innocent. If Jared continued like this, Jensen would have to break pattern.

Suddenly, Jared looked up from his burger. “Wait, you watch Jersey Shore?”

Jensen banged his head against the wall.

 

 

“So. What now?”

Jared had finished his meal, burped again and then washed his hands, before sitting down on the floor across from Jensen, legs casually falling open. Jensen hadn’t been exposed to this much naked dick since the seventies.

“You can ask, you know,” Jared said, evil glint in his eyes.

Jensen looked up at his face, forcing his expression into bored neutrality. “There are more pressing matters at hand than your obsession with your junk, don’t you think?”

“First off,” Jared said, continuing to grin, “It’s _your_ obsession with my junk, and secondly, we have a lot of time here. But you’re right. Hence my question. And see, I can use fancy conjunctions too.”

Jensen shook his head. “Of all the people to get locked up with… Well, we have twenty-nine days until the next full moon. Is there any way you’ll be able to control yourself?”

There was no hesitation before Jared shook his head. He’d obviously thought about this. Well, thank fuck, he wasn’t entirely useless.

“Normally it wouldn’t be a problem. I don’t need to be around a pack member to keep calm and the silver down here won’t bother me too much. But if they pump me full of wolfsbane, I’ll attack.”

“I thought as much. What about your alpha? Do you think someone will come looking for you?”

Jared nodded. “I’m sure they’re looking. But we’re hours away from where they captured me, and considering how professional they are, they might not have left a trace. The silver is cutting into our connection, so he won’t be able to feel me. So, there’s hope, definitely, but we can’t bet on it. He might even think I’m dead.” After a pause, he added, “I assume no one’s gonna come looking for you?”

It shouldn’t sting. Jensen was very - well, not happy, but content with his life. It was just the way Jared said it, like he was someone to be pitied.

“I didn’t make any plans to meet anyone in the near future.”

“Don’t you have a coven?” Jared asked, slightly confused.

Jensen clenched his jaw and tried not to remember. “No, I don’t.”

“Ah, you’re one of the wanderers.”

Jensen shot Jared a glare. “Don’t call me that.”

“Touchy,” Jared said, then scrunched up his forehead, clearly trying to think of something.

“Don’t strain yourself,” Jensen advised him.

Jared looked confused, then he stuck his tongue out. Unbelievable. “Fuck you. I was just trying to remember if your maker can sense if you’re in trouble, but I guess he probably doesn’t care all that much about such a prickly thorn like you.”

Usually Jensen didn’t think too often of Timothy. Fuck the mutt for bringing him up. “My maker is dead,” he said, keeping his voice even.

For a moment, Jared was startled. “Sorry,” he said, almost sounding regretful. “So we’re on our own then,” he added, letting out a low whistle.

“Seems like it.”

“Well,” Jared said after a pause, “there’s always the hope they dose me wrong. Too much and I’ll get drowsy enough so you can take me, not enough and I’ll be able to stay away. I don’t think their window is too big, so we might get lucky.”

Jensen snorted. “Yeah, I’d like to have a plan that doesn’t include us getting lucky. And who knows if they’ll wait for another full moon or just give up and kill us. We’re sitting ducks in here.”

“So how do we get out?”

Jensen looked outside their cell, scanning the basement. “We need more information.”

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nsfw image imbedded in fic

 

 

 

 

Their first few days were spent in a tense truce. They didn’t talk much, because neither of them seemed to be able to make polite conversation. It wasn’t like the situation lent itself to it, anyway. So they sat in silence and listened. Jared’s heartbeat was rather distracting when Jensen tried to listen farther and farther out, but he made do.

They both fell into a kind of trance that always occurred when they followed their senses as far as they would lead.

Listening to the hunters move, they were able to get a fairly accurate map of the building and surrounding area that they scratched into the wall hidden by the toilet. They knew how many people stayed here, how many cars they had, and who came and left when.

Bowman and Dewey seemed to be the only permanent residents. Alaina spent a fair amount of time upstairs as well as three other people, two men and a woman. They only came downstairs once, to ogle Jared and Jensen. Dewey continued to be the one who brought Jared food once or twice a day, always some kind of junk food. Bowman occasionally came down with him, pretending to be all important by inspecting their cell. As if the iron bars would suddenly start to rust.

They continued to ask for clothes, and Dewey got so annoyed that he finally threw Jared a pair of jeans and an old Yankees shirt. Jared took the jeans but declined the shirt.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll be dead before I put on a fucking _Yankees_ shirt.”

Jensen told him he was behaving like a child and Jared flicked the opened ketchup pack from his lunch at him.

“It’s really good I can’t get scurvy,” he said, mouth full with burger.

“You’re disgusting,” Jensen told him. Just another day in their little cell.

 

 

Their biggest problem was that there was never any key or tool within reach. The walls were plastered, but when they scratched it away, they found a mix of silver and iron they couldn’t get through. The door was solid and unbreakable. They knew because Jared had tried. He’d punched and thrown himself against the bars for hours until his whole body was covered in bruises that wouldn’t leave his skin for almost an hour.

“You look like the Hulk used you as his punching bag,” Jensen snorted.

Jared actually smiled wistfully for a moment, before he looked at Jensen sharply. “You know, for such an uptight dead dude, your knowledge of pop culture is pretty vast.”

Jensen shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t going to explain his obsession with current trends to Jared. “I have a good memory. And the Hulk is a classic.”

“Okay, Babar,” Jared said with a disbelieving laugh, but thankfully didn’t prod further.

 

 

 

 

“We need to get Dewey,” Jensen finally said after a week.

Jared looked doubtful. “Somehow I don’t see them setting us free in exchange for his life.”

Jensen agreed. “No, they won’t. But maybe he’ll have something on him with which we can try to crack the lock.”

“Well, it’s worth a try. But we gotta wait until he’s alone.”

It happened occasionally, and this time they only had to wait for another day before Dewey was alone in the house.

 

 

 

 

 

The day Dewey would be alone, they waited until Bowman and the others were far enough away, then Jared shifted and let out a toe-curling howl. It made actual goosebumps break out on Jensen’s arms, something he hadn’t experienced since the time he’d heard a Banshee scream.

Jared continued to howl, only stopping when upstairs Dewey angrily got up from a chair, legs scraping over the floor. When the basement door opened, Jared started to whimper. By the time Dewey reached the cell, Jared was lying curled up around the toilet, breathing fast and shallow and looking quite miserable.

“What the fuck is wrong with him?”

Jensen shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “I think he’s dying.”

Dewey looked at him in horror. “What?”

“He stopped eating,” Jensen said, pointing at the untouched Taco Bell bag. “And you know what they say about dogs and not eating…”

Dewey’s eyes flitted in panic through the cell, from the bed to Jared to Jensen and back to Jared. Jensen had to bite his cheek so he wouldn’t laugh out loud. He could hear the hunter’s heartbeat quicken, could smell the sour scent of panic settling in.

“But why’s he dying? He’s a fucking werewolf!”

“Could be many things. The silver, being away from his pack, the crappy food. I mean, werewolves eat tons of meat, at least a pound a day and whoever believes there’s actual meat in those burgers…”

Dewey ran a hand through his hair. “Well, what the hell did he tell you?”

“He didn’t tell me anything,” Jensen said sharply. “He just turned into a wolf and stopped communicating. Honestly, I don’t even know if he still knows what’s going on. Seems like your plan is falling apart. Just think what your boss will say if he finds out Jared died under your care, because you couldn’t get him any real food.”

Sweat began to gather on Dewey’s forehead and he came a step closer, trying to see what was going on with Jared. Just a few more inches…

“He’ll pull through. I mean he’s a were.”

Jensen scoffed. “They’re not immortal. Just look at him!”

Dewey took another step.

Jensen shot up from the cot, hands reaching through the bars and gripping the front of Dewey’s shirt before the hunter knew what was going on. He slammed Dewey against the bars and pulled him in a chokehold. The guy struggled feebly before passing out.

“Nice,” Jared said next to him.

Jensen nodded. “I bet you were part of your high school’s drama group,” he said, the closest he could bring himself to complimenting Jared on his performance.

Jared winked at him. “My Romeo would’ve made you cry.”

Yeah, Jensen didn’t even know why he bothered. “Put on your pants,” was all he said though.

They went through all of Dewey’s pockets, and they found a switchblade and an ankle knife. It might suffice. Since Jared had the unmistakable aura of a delinquent, Jensen left the lock cracking to him. He focused on Dewey’s heartbeat and fantasized how it would sound if he made it stop.

“I can practically hear your homicidal fantasies, dude,” Jared said from where he was crouched down in front of the lock. “But we can’t kill him before we’re out of here, he might still be useful.”

Jensen tilted his head, straining his ears. “I guess we’ll find out. Sounds like Alaina is back early.”

“Fuck,” Jared muttered.

“Is there a reason the door is still closed?” They were so fucking close.

Jared huffed. “It’s not like I’m a criminal mastermind. And this is some grade A military shit. So how about you shut up and let me work?”

Jensen did, but in the quiet he could hear a second car approaching. Not good.

Then there was a metallic click, and the door sprang open.

“Hah!” Jared exclaimed triumphantly just as several small bombs went off on one of the work benches. Of course the hunters had an automated alarm system. The bombs immediately dispelled smoke and Jensen sniffed once carefully before he stopped breathing.

“Jared, cover your mouth, that’s wolfsbane.” There was also a healthy dose of hawthorn in there, so Jensen shut up. He didn’t need to breathe, but speaking did require air.

They rushed out of the cell and up the stairs. It was the first time Jensen saw the basement door and it was made of reinforced iron laced with silver. Of fucking course. It didn’t move an inch. They pressed and beat against it, but got nothing for it but burnt skin.

Jensen frantically looked around for a button to press or a key, when he saw the wire running around the door. An electrical lock on the outside, probably triggered by the alarm.

He motioned for Jared to go back down, they needed to find another way out. The fog was thick and heavy, and for a second Jensen had this ridiculous thought that he was running through the Titanic’s water-filled underbelly, looking for a door that would open, but then they were back in the basement and scouring the walls for another exit.

Next to him, Jared was stumbling. The were had to breathe and the wolfsbane smoke was slowly affecting him. There were several different kinds and this one seemed to be the unconsciousness-inducing one. Great.

“Jared! Stay with me, we need to get out of here!”

Jared shot him an annoyed look, leaning heavily against the wall. He made a motion with his hands that Jensen couldn’t quite decipher before he sank down. Jensen kneeled next to him, slapping him in the face.

“Jared!”

The were looked at him for a moment, then he gripped a gun from on of the tables. “I can’t get out, but I can fire off a few shots. Buy you a few minutes. Get out of here.” Jared coughed. “Find Jeff.”

Fucking mutt. “I’m not leaving you!” And Jensen was out of air.

He could hear the commotion upstairs, at least five people, probably armed to the teeth and not delirious from poisoned fog.

“Go,” Jared said and cocked the shotgun.

Jensen cursed and got up. Jared grinned at him, eyes heavy-lidded and gave him a weak thumbs up. Jensen swore again and ran to the back of the basement, where the crate Jared had been in had come from. He found a door, no electric lock and when he threw himself against it, the hinges creaked. He jumped against the door again and again, before it finally sprung open.

The hunters came down the stairs, shots ringing out, then he heard Jared’s unmistakable groan and Alaina’s voice over the chaos.

“Kill him! What are you waiting for, you stupid-”

Jensen didn’t think, he just turned around. He jumped on the nearest table, picked up a crossbow and started firing in Alaina’s direction. A hunter came his way and he jumped at him, slashing his throat open without a second thought.

A few bullets grazed him, but he didn’t care. He finally landed between the hunters and Jared, who was an almost unconscious bleeding mess on the floor. Crouching down, Jensen was hit by a wave of dizziness, the hawthorn finally seeping in through his skin.

Alaina pointed a gun at him, smiling widely. “There you are. And I thought you’d left already.”

Jensen bared his fangs at her. “Not before I rip your throat out.”

He jumped, evading two bullets before colliding with her. A third hit him right in the chest and he could feel something drenched in dead blood pierce his side, but his nails dug into her body and his fangs closed around her shoulder. Then pain exploded through the right side of his face and he was thrown into complete darkness.

 

 

Jensen came to fully healed, lying on the cot in their cell. He stared at the grey ceiling, following meaningless patterns in the cracks. He could be out. Could be breathing in fresh air. Walking wherever his feet would carry him. Enjoying wine and a song, going to the movies, picking up a pretty little thing to drink from.

Stupid, he’d been stupid.

“Why did you come back?” Jared’s raspy voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

Jensen turned his head, watching Jared sitting in his favorite spot across from Jensen. He had healed from whatever wounds the hunters had inflicted, but he still looked a little worse for wear.

“I don’t know,” Jensen said.

Jared raised one eyebrow, unimpressed. “Seriously?”

Jensen stared at the wall. He really didn’t know. He could be out of here by now, far away from this mess. Except Jared would be dead and it would be Jensen’s fault. And Jensen didn’t know why he cared; honor was not something that had ever stretched past the small circle of people he valued in his life. There was an explanation, lurking at the corner of his mind, but it was nothing he wanted to examine further.

 

_Emotions. Fueled by every living creature’s heartbeat. We’re above that._

_We’re too dead for it, you mean._

_Transcendence, Jensen. The gift of our kind. Our dead heart, as you so eloquently put it, will enable you to unlock your mind. Look at them, all those little heartbeats; scrabbling, worrying, quarreling, fearing, despairing._

_Caring. Loving._

_Love is a living thing, Jensen. And like all living things it must die. We live forever. But you will have time to discover that for yourself._

 

“You might be a fucking mutt,” Jensen finally said, “but you didn’t deserve to be killed abandoned in a hunter’s basement.” It was true enough.

Jared grinned insolently. “Or maybe you didn’t want to be outdone by me staying behind to cover your escape.”

Jensen snorted. “Please, you couldn’t even walk, you would’ve never made it out of here.”

They stared at each other for a while, then Jared looked away. “Whatever. Look, right now I don’t think we’re getting out of here, and I’m tired of your attitude, so can we just take a break for a while?”

For the first time they’d been here, Jared actually looked defeated. Gone was the cocky facade and there was just a scared young man left. It made Jensen feel uncomfortable.

“Jared, I-”

But Jared had already shifted into a wolf and curled up into a small ball.

Jensen sighed and lay down. The cot was long, and at the foot would be just enough room. Jensen had been alone most of his life, but right now, with the walls closing in, and the overwhelming presence of iron inescapably surrounding his body, he couldn’t bear it.

“Get up here.”

Jared didn’t move for a moment, then he huffed and jumped up on the cot.

“Good boy,” Jensen said and closed his eyes.

Jared bit into his boot, before shifting around and lying down partially on Jensen’s legs, radiating warmth through Jensen’s cold, dead limbs. It felt nice. Jensen still gave Jared a soft obligatory kick to the side, before they both settled into sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

Stuart dropped by the morning after their failed escape attempt.

“You’re lucky Alaina survived, otherwise I’d have to kill you.”

“You mean you’re lucky,” Jensen shot back.

Jared hadn’t bothered shifting. It was better if he wasn’t talking. He couldn’t stop the low growl starting deep in his chest and Jensen’s chastening look didn’t help. For a minute Jared had thought they’d shared a moment, after all the vamp had come back to save him, but whatever Jensen’s motivation had been, there was nothing left of it. He was just as bitchy as usual.

Whatever. It wasn’t like Jared cared. So the guy had saved his life, so he owed him. It sucked, but it was no big deal. He focused back on Stuart rattling off his movie villain routine.

“... and voilà, I get what I want.”

Jensen looked decidedly unimpressed. “Good thing you became a hunter. They would’ve thrown you out of theater class after your first rendition of Iago.”

Stuart cocked his head. “So you’re one of those too old to even care anymore. I never really understood that, the appeal of immortality. I mean, a long life, all the things you can do, I can see that. But everything around you changes. Except for you. And you bloodsuckers, you don’t have your own life force to rely on. You have to steal those of others. So you can’t change, can’t evolve. In the end you just fade into nothingness. Go to rest in the ground, as they call it. And really, does anyone ever come back from that?”

Jensen shrugged. “Do I look like a supernatural encyclopedia to you?”

Stuart grinned. “No. You look like someone who’s ready to fade out.”

In an instant, Jensen went from lounging on the cot to standing in front of the bars. To Stuart’s credit his flinch was almost invisible. Almost.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, hunter,” Jensen hissed. “And you never will, because you’ll lie rotting in the ground before your understanding grows past that of the basest animal. You think you’re so smart, so self-determined, but you’re no better than the ass following the carrot on a stick, the whip behind him. The only difference is that revenge is your carrot and guilt is your whip. You can’t see past those emotions cloying up the life force you’re so proud to have, can’t see that you have no choice, no agency. You just react to whatever life throws your way, getting pushed around like a leaf in the wind.” Jensen took a slow deliberate step back. “You are pathetic and your existence will be forgotten sooner than your bones will have turned to dust.”

By the end of Jensen’s speech, Stuart’s fists were clenched at his side and he was almost white with anger in his face.

“Well, you won’t be around to see that.”

Jensen raised one eyebrow sardonically. “We’ll see about that.”

Stuart just scowled, before his face smoothed out in his typical mask of arrogance. Honestly, Jensen pulled it off better. Jared wasn’t sure whether that was because Jensen’s face was more symmetric and just generally flawless or if the stillness of his body added to it.

When the door above them closed, Jensen walked back to the cot, face dark.

Jared shifted back into his human form. “So you have a plan?”

“A plan?” Jensen asked irritatedly.

“You sounded pretty sure you’d get us out of here.”

Jensen let out a hollow laugh. “Well, we can try getting our hands on whoever comes too close to these bars, but I don’t see them falling for it again. No, we’ll sit here till the next full moon and then either you’ll tear me apart or I kill you. And then, well I’m pretty sure they’ll kill whoever survives.”

Jared didn’t reply. Jensen was right, really. The cell was solidly built and he doubted they’d get another shot at escaping. It wasn’t something he wanted to think about. There had to be a way. The hunters had showed weakness and now Jared and Jensen knew about their alarm system.

They hadn’t killed Dewey, too focused on getting out, but they should have. While Jensen had still been out cold, Jared had heard Stuart execute Dewey. Bowman had been punished too, but he was still alive. Benito had been told to move into the house and he didn’t look like a hunter who’d be easily fooled.

“Yeah, Stuart won’t let them make a mistake again.”

Jensen looked up sharply. “Stuart? How do you know his name?”

Shit. Jared had forgotten that the hunters referred to him only as the boss, never using his name.

“I met him once before,” he said reluctantly.

“He didn’t recognize you.”

“It was a long time ago.”

Jensen sat up straight. “And you didn’t think to tell me that? Information is the key to getting out of here!”

“It won‘t help us-”

“You can’t know that,” Jensen yelled. “What the fuck is wrong with you, huh? What fucking stupid reason would there be for not telling me you know that fucker?”

For the first time since they’d been here, Jensen had raised his voice and Jared was too stunned to answer. He’d never thought Jensen would lose his composure.

Jensen jumped off the cot, gripped Jared by the shoulder and slammed him against the wall. “What the fuck?”

Jared took a deep breath, smelling coldness and old paper, the slightly revolting note of sweetness every vamp gave off, and underneath Jensen’s own scent. It was clean and clear, solitary and yet still full of comfort.

Once, months after Jeff had taken him in, helpless in the face of Jared’s anger and his silence, he’d led Jared up to the highest peak in their territory. It was a new moon, no clouds in the sky and the night was bright with the luminaries’ light.

Jeff had given him a clap on the shoulder and told him to mourn. Then he’d left him. Jared had sat up there the whole night, in the damp grass, surrounded by the smells of the night wafting up the hill. Every scent around him had been muted by the dew and while the tears ran down his cheeks, he’d thought he could smell the moon and the stars, mother night wrapping him in her embrace.

He’d come down when the sun had risen and he’d never shed another tear. He’d left his grief on the mountain.

Jensen smelled like that night.

Jared came back to the present when Jensen shook him. “Answer me!”

Inhaling deeply, focusing on that clear and calm night, Jared answered. “He killed my parents. I was only a kid, he wouldn’t recognize me. They burned the house down.”

Jensen let him go and sat back on his haunches.

“It was the middle of the night.” Jared didn’t know why he continued to talk. He never told his story, couldn’t bear the looks of pity. Maybe because he knew there would be no pity from Jensen. “They threw wolfsbane bombs into the house and then they lit it up. I had sneaked outside, wanted to play with our new pet rabbit in the garden. They found me-”

_Looks like we missed one._

“But they didn’t kill me.”

_We have a code._

“Stuart wasn’t much more than a boy himself back then, maybe sixteen or seventeen. But his eyes were already cold.”

_Behave kid, or we’ll find you again._

Jared looked up into Jensen’s face, into his clear green eyes and for the first time, he could see emotion in there. He wasn’t sure if it was compassion or anger, but it was something.

“Who would’ve thought,” Jared said, “you’re not made out of stone after all.”

Jensen pulled back as if someone had slapped him in the face.

“You still should’ve told me,” he said after a while.

Jared looked up to the ceiling. He really wanted to see the sky again. “Yeah, I know.”

Wordlessly, Jensen nodded and went back to the cot. “We’re not dying in here, Jared.”

There was no reason for it, but the determination in Jensen's voice actually reassured him.

 

  

 

 

“Tell me something.”

Jensen turned his head to look at him. “Tell you what?”

“You’ve been around for a while, you must have some stories to tell,” Jared said. It was better than admitting he couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“I’m not here for your personal entertainment,” Jensen said dismissively.

“But you _are_ an arrogant bastard who loves to hear himself talk.”

Jared thought he saw the corner of Jensen’s mouth twitch.

“I once had a drink with John Wilkes Booth.”

“You what?”

Jensen actually laughed, a low smooth sound, and then he started talking.

 

Somewhere between the English count who’d wanted to keep Jensen as his sex slave and the last year of the war where Jensen had hid out in the Scottish highlands, the sun set. When Jensen told him about the Bulgarian hunter that had chased him all the way to Australia, the sun rose again. By the time Jensen was telling him about the crocodiles - and seriously, that one just had to be made up - Jared noticed the hoarseness in Jensen’s voice.

“Thirsty?”

Jensen seemed startled. Jared hadn’t said much, had let Jensen talk, his low voice soothingly filling the cell.

Jensen cleared his throat. “Yes, I guess I am.”

Slowly, Jared got up, joints cracking from sitting so long. He sat down next to Jensen and held his arm out. “Do your worst.”

The look of disgust on Jensen’s face almost made Jared pull back. “I thought by now you would’ve gotten over it.”

“What is the most disgusting food you can imagine?” Jensen asked.

Jared considered this for a moment. “Sea food. Chewy mussels or octopus. Oh god, I once was that at this restaurant and they actually served some kind of octopus-mushroom stew. It was the most revolting thing ever.”

“Jared?” Jensen asked calmly.

“Yes, Jensen?”

“You are that octopus-mushroom stew.”

Jared grinned. “Fuck you. At least you don’t have to chew on gooey things.”

Jensen did that eyebrow thing he always did when he thought Jared was behaving like a nine-year old and then he bit down.

There was pain, sure, but Jared’s shock came from the fact that this was the first time Jensen had voluntarily put his mouth on Jared’s skin. It should have felt bad, threatening, invasive, but it didn’t. Instead it made Jared aware of his own pulse, beating rhythmically from his heart to his arm. Amplified, it was ringing in his ears, making him feel fucking alive.

Jensen’s mouth was cold and yet, paradoxically, warmth started to spread through Jared’s arm. It radiated through his whole body, taking the tension in his muscles with it, leaving him loose-limbed and relaxed.

He leaned back against the wall, let Jensen take his fill, let his soft lips press into his skin. Enjoying the tendrils of warmth meandering up his arms, Jared - Jared jerked his arm away, fangs ripping through his skin.

Jensen looked up at him, eyes glowing eerily and color in his cheek, lips dark red with blood.

“What? I didn’t take that much, I-” Jensen’s nostrils flared and he stopped. Shit. “Interesting,” he finally said. “I always thought we couldn’t affect you at all. But considering that we would never drink from a werewolf voluntarily long enough to find this out…”

Jensen must have seen Jared’s mortified expression, because he rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. Can I finish now?”

Reluctantly, Jared stretched his arm out again. He tried his best to keep calm, not to react to this pulsing energy seeping through him. Fuck. It was like a bastardized version of a mate bond, and Jared couldn’t deal with it. Except-

“Holy shit!”

Annoyed, Jensen let his arm go. “What now?”

Jared grinned. “I have an idea.”

Jensen scrutinized his face. “I’m going to hate it, aren’t I?”

If possible, Jared’s smile widened. “You’re going to absolutely _loathe_ it,” he said gleefully and Jensen groaned.

“It’s just sex,” Jared said, because really, it was. And objectively speaking, Jensen was hot. For a dead guy. “We’re both healthy, good-looking adults and-”

“No. Forget it. Absolutely not.” Jensen had his arms crossed in front of his chest and was glaring at Jared.

“Aww, c’mon baby,” Jared crooned. “I’ll make it good for you, I promise.”

Jensen’s fist snapped out, pain exploded through Jared’s shoulder and he found himself flying into the bars. He shook his head.

“Ow. That hurt.”

“Oh, shut up. And I really don’t see how us fucking will resolve anything.”

Jared sighed and climbed back up on the cot, leaving as much space between them as possible. “How about you keep it down and I explain?”

Jensen grumbled but shut up. They had discovered the cameras almost immediately after the escape attempt and they didn’t know if there was audio. Better to talk quietly.

“It’s about more than fucking. Your teeth just fooled my body into thinking you were something like my mate. Now, long term, this isn’t anything you can fake, but we just need my wolf to think you’re my mate during the full moon so I won’t attack you.”

Jensen eyed him sceptically. “What would your wolf do then when it’s driven crazy?”

Jared shrugged his shoulders. “The mate instinct is the strongest there is, runs even deeper than pack or alpha obedience. My wolf would do anything to protect its mate, which in this case will probably mean I’ll try to claw a way out of this cell.”

“And you think we can… what, fool your wolf into believing I’m your mate?”

“The wolf runs on instinct. If we smell right and I’ve claimed you, it should work. Besides, you’ll finally know the mystery behind wolf dick.” Jared waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

The eyeroll was quite spectacular, one of the best Jared had seen so far.

“There are a lot of ifs and woulds in there.”

“Yeah well, it’s not like I’ve ever tried anything like this before.”

Jensen was quiet for a while. Jared tried to wait patiently. It wasn’t like they didn’t have the time.

Finally, Jensen looked at him. “So what, you fuck me, put your wolf claim on me, whatever that means, and we’re good?”

Jared rubbed his neck. “Something like that, yeah.”

Jensen’s eyes narrowed to green slits. “Jared, I swear to fucking everything, you better tell me exactly what it is that we have to do. Right now.”

“Okay,” Jared said, taking a deep breath. “First thing is smell. You need to smell like me, I need to smell like you and we need to smell of each other.”

“We do,” Jensen interrupted him. “We’ve been sharing 90 square feet for over a week.”

Jared shook his head. “It’s not enough. We need to reek of each other. And not only that. If you’re together, like really mated, our scents partially mix and become one. So you smell like yourself, like me and like _us_. It’s hard to explain. Just trust me, there needs to be a lot more physical contact.”

“Great.”

“Marking is also important.”

Jensen snorted. “I heal.”

“I’m a born wolf. Our teeth do leave scars. I bite down on your neck often enough-”

“No.”

Jared couldn’t help it; he broke out laughing. Jensen was literally clutching his neck. “Dude, you’re just missing a pearl necklace.”

The look Jensen gave him would’ve made most wolves break out in fear. Jared just laughed harder.

“I will not spend the rest of my life walking around with teeth marks on my neck,” Jensen said icily.

Jared couldn’t stop grinning. “What, don’t think you can pull off a turtleneck? C’mon, I bet you wear fashionable scarves all the time. Like the thin striped ones?”

“You know, I am this close to ripping you apart and taking my chances with the hunters.”

“Awww, I know deep down you love me.”

Jensen pounced. Jared tried to give as good as he got, but Jensen surprised him and before he knew it, he was thrown against the bars again, breaking a few ribs.

“No marking.” Jensen’s voice was calm. “We can do the scenting and the fucking, and that is it. You put your teeth in my neck and I’ll play dentist.”

Jared spat out the blood gathered in his mouth. “Role play. Kinky.”

“I’ll even throw in some amputation play for you.”

Stretching his sore muscles, Jared stood up. “Drama queen. Now let’s cuddle.” Before Jensen could protest, Jared let his pants drop and shifted. He jumped up the cot and plopped down in Jensen’s lap.

Jensen sputtered, then cursed, and finally settled on grumbling under his breath about overgrown puppies and wet dog smell. Jared let the insults wash over him like a calming blanket, listening to the familiar fall and rise of Jensen’s deep voice, and fell asleep.

 

 

 

 

 

The cuddling was easier than Jared had thought it would be. Jensen didn’t put up any resistance and he kept his comments about Jared’s wolf stench to a minimum. When they celebrated their two weeks imprisonment - as Jared referred to it under one of Jensen’s most dismissing eyerolls yet - Jared finally asked Jensen why he was so chill about it.

Jensen was physically unable to blush, but he tilted his head in a way that told Jared he would’ve.

“You’re just really warm,” he finally burst out. “And it’s not like I need the warmth, but it’s nice. Sometimes, when I knew I wasn’t in any danger, I’d go out during the day and lie in the sun for a while.”

“I thought sunlight hurts you vamps?” Jared asked.

Jensen shook his head. “The younger ones can’t deal with the brightness too well, but as you get older, you can handle it. If you wear really good sunglasses. And it doesn’t hurt. It’s more that it makes us really lethargic and slow. Our senses get overwhelmed, so we tend to avoid it. But it feels nice for a little while.”

They’d been cuddling at night usually, but now Jared pushed his lunch away - Wendy’s this time, and god, he was really getting sick of burgers and fries - and shifted. Jensen looked at him in surprise, but Jared just huffed and curled himself up in Jensen’s lap.

It was actually rather nice to lie on a cool body. Cooped up for so long, unable to really move or stretch, Jared felt the energy thrumming under his skin, his wolf itching for a run and Jared wasn’t far behind. Cuddling up to Jensen felt like his warmth was being transferred, like Jensen just absorbed all of Jared’s excess energy. It was soothing.

 

 

 

 

 

“What was the most beautiful place you ever visited?”

Jensen tore his eyes away from the dark corners of the basement and looked at Jared in confusion. “What?”

Jared waved his hand around. “Place. You know, like a beach or mountains or deserts or-”

“The arctic. At night.” Jensen shot him a quick look, before focusing his eyes on one of the basement’s workstations. “The stars reflect on the ice and the ocean in such a unique way. And when the Northern lights appear…”

“I’ve never seen the Northern lights,” Jared said.

“You should.”

Jared smiled. “I will.”

This time he looked at Jensen, the vamp didn’t immediately look away. “How come you’re so chipper?”

“You took a shower this morning,” Jared said.

Jensen made an indignant sounds. “You make it sound like I was smelling before. Which I wasn’t.”

“Oh, I know.” Jensen grinned at the memory from this morning. “But I saw your naked ass. I’m confident it will all work out.”

Jensen huffed and looked away again. “ _Such_ a child.” 

 

 

 

 

“So.”

Jensen didn’t open his eyes.

“It makes me wonder,” Jared said, putting his weight on his hands and propping his feet up on the wash basin. He’d had to get creative with his workout routine.

“And what is that?” Jensen asked after a while.

Jared did a set of twenty push ups. “You,” he said. “Prim and proper, all academic language, and then you go quoting every crappy TV program on me.”

Jensen let out a sigh. “What do you want from me, Jared?”

Jared did another twenty. “Answers? I’m a curious guy. You’re also the only company down here, so...”

A huff was his only answer.

“Fine,” Jared said, lifting one of his hands from the ground, balancing for a moment before he got a smooth rhythm going. “Don’t talk then. Be boring and cold.”

“Has it ever occured to you that conversing with you does nothing to lessen my boredom?”

Jared laughed. “No. You love talking to me like that way too much. Admit it, you totally get off on treating me like an idiot.”

“I would, if you were a worthy opponent,” Jensen said, voice biting.

Sweat was running down Jared’s face and back and a thought occurred to him. Childish? Possibly. Petty? Probably. Did he care? No. Jensen’s face would be worth it.

“Okay, cuddle time,” Jared announced gleefully and before Jensen could protest, Jared pounced. He buried the vamp under him, rubbing his sweaty body all over Jensen.

“You fucking animal, get your stinking ass off of me. I swear, Jared, I will - oh my god, did you just lick me?”

Jared laughed breathlessly while Jensen’s elbow hit him in the ribs, but he had the vamp pinned pretty tightly. At least he thought he did until Jensen twisted, almost dislocating Jared’s shoulder and then throwing him off of him.

“I was just trying to speed things up,” Jared said, wheezing slightly. “Sweat smell sticks better.”

Jensen sat crouched on the cot, hair sticking up in all directions, glaring at Jared like an indignant hedgehog. “I don’t give a fuck. It’s bad enough I need to put up with your normal smelly self, I won’t subject myself to your sweat as well.”

“Fine. Then we’ll just cuddle extra long when I’m done showering.”

And if Jared shifted into a wolf still standing under the spray and plopped his still wet body down in Jensen’s lap - well, the vamp had brought that on himself.

 

 

 

 

 

  


 

“So. When are we having sex?”

Jared almost choked on his fried chicken. He coughed and took a few big gulps from the water bottle. Of course Jensen, the fucker, had waited until Jared had his mouth full.

“I didn’t know you were so eager,” Jared said when he could breathe again. “We still have over a week left.”

Jensen gave him eyebrow raise number four, the one asking _are you really that stupid_?

“Well, since you already admitted to having no frame of reference for… this, how do we know one time will suffice?”

Jared nodded thoughtfully. “I see. You just wanna tap this again and again and a-”

“Oh god, shut up, Jared! There is nothing less that I want than _tapping that_.”

Jared couldn’t resist. “Well, technically, I’ll be the one doing the tapping…”

Jensen pulled a face. “I’m glad we’re back to middle school joke level, I was starting to miss it.”

There was another joke in there, about refractory periods in high school and werewolf stamina, but Jared settled for smiling insolently. He just loved Jensen’s annoyed expression.

“So,” Jensen prompted again. “Sex?”

“Can I finish my dinner first? It’s been a over a week since they brought me chicken, and I’d never thought I’d say this, but I was actually happy when Bowman showed up with KFC.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Your face is disgusting,” Jared shot back cheerfully, and yep, he got another wonderful eyeroll for that, including Jensen thumping his head back against the wall, showing off his long, pale neck.

“But yeah, as soon as I get out of here, I’m gonna raid a farmers market.” Jared dreamily closed his eyes. “Apples, strawberries, peaches, I’m gonna eat it all. And then I’m gonna go to my favorite Thai place and get the biggest stir fry they have. And salad. I will eat so much salad.”

There were little carrot and celery sticks dancing through Jared’s mind, taunting him with their freshness. He wasn’t really a health freak, he was a werewolf for fuck’s sake, meat was the only thing he really needed, but after three weeks where the only vegetables were soggy lettuce, onions and dry tomatoes, Jared was ready for a vitamin flash.

He looked at Jensen. “I mean, won’t you be happy to get your fangs on some nice human blood?”

For a moment, there was an almost longing expression on Jensen’s face, before it smoothed out into the calm mask again.

“Are you done with your food now?” was all he asked though.

With a sigh, Jared put the last of the chicken strips into his mouth, collected the wrappers in the bag and threw it out through the bars.

He burped - really, he had better manners than that, but all that fast food wasn’t helping - and smiled at Jensen.

“Well, after dinner, you’re supposed to take a long walk for digestion. Since that’s out of the question...”

Jensen snorted, but stood up. “Alright, let’s get this over with then.” He took off the belt keeping his ratty jeans in place and with a well-calculated throw of the belt buckle he destroyed the lens of the camera.

“They don’t need to see this.”

Jared grinned. “Prude.”

Jensen rolled his eyes. Some things never changed.

 

 

 

Carefully, Jensen took off the rest of his shirt and let his jeans slide down. He was about to step out of his briefs when he looked at Jared’s face. The wolf’s default setting these days was annoying smugness, but right now he was almost vibrating with anticipation.

“What?” Jensen snapped. He was in no way looking forward to letting Jared anywhere near his ass and the jerk had to play into it.

Jared grinned like a maniac. “You’re still not gonna ask?”

“Ask what?”

“Werewolf anatomy.”

Jensen threw up his hands. “Oh my god, Jared, everybody knows the knot thing is just a myth, so can we please get to it?”

Jared’s grin didn’t diminish. In fact, it took on some decidedly comic super villain tones. No. Just no. It wasn’t possible.

“You’re joking.”

“Born wolves,” Jared said triumphantly.

That was… Jensen ignored the tugging feeling low in his gut. It was not going to happen.

“No. I am not letting you fuck my ass with your freaky werewolf knot.”

Jared’s smile was decidedly smug. “For the mate faking to work, we really should though.”

Jensen closed his eyes. How had his life come to this?

“C’mon,” Jared said. “It’s not like it can hurt you. What do you know, you might even like it.”

Glaring was definitely an appropriate answer here. “Of course it can hurt. I will heal, but that doesn’t mean-”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Jared cut him off. “Also, you should really work on your pillow talk.”

“I’ll have you know, my ‘pillow talk’ is quite excellent, if I want it to be. Right now I just want you to get your dick out, fuck me, and then leave me alone.”

Jared shook his head until he realized Jensen was looking at him expectantly.

“You’re serious,” Jared said disbelievingly. “You want me to just shuck my pants and fuck you.”

Jensen raised one eyebrow. “I thought that was how it works.”

“Well yeah,” Jared answered, sounding hedgy all of a sudden.

“What’s the fucking problem now?”

“I can’t just get in the mood like that!” Jared burst out.

His life… Jensen deserved a medal for not just killing Jared. With all the patience he could muster, he asked, “Well, what do you usually do to _get in the mood_?”

Jared huffed. “Foreplay. You know, kissing and stuff.”

Jensen wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, I’m not kissing you. As a matter of fact, we’re not even going to do this face to face.”

“Wow. And here I thought you couldn’t get any more rude.”

Jensen scoffed and pulled off his briefs. They needed to move this along. He walked over to the cot and kneeled down on it on all fours.

“Come on, Jared, don’t tell me doggy style doesn’t get you going.”

There was a moment of silence, then Jared growled. “You know, I was just getting somewhere, objectifying your ass, and then you go and open your fucking mouth. So for the rest of this ordeal, how about you just shut the fuck up?”

“Fine. I’m going to shut up so your delicate feelings don’t take a hit.”

“Maybe you’re just not as irresistible as you think,” Jared mumbled.

At this, Jensen actually had to laugh. “Please, I know what I look like. And I’ve seen you drooling. Don’t even pretend you don’t want to fuck me into next week. So how about you get over your inner whiny kid and show me all the werewolf prowess you’ve been trying to convince me of?”

“You…” Jared didn’t finish his thought. Just as well.

Slowly, Jared approached him, kneeling down on the cot and putting one warm hand on Jensen’s lower back.

“So,” he said, “we don’t have any lube.”

Jensen was aware of this. “I know. So it’s not going to be the smoothest ride. Just-”

This time Jensen wasn’t able to finish his sentence, because Jared had put his hot, wet tongue on his ass.

“Oh.” He’d wanted to propose the spitting in the hand thing, but that, that was also - Jensen shook his head, trying to get his shit together. Just because he hadn’t had sex in a while, didn’t mean he would fall apart by a little bit of rimming. And really, technically speaking, Jared was being way too sloppy. The way his tongue moved was just - yeah, it wasn’t, it was not refined at all. When the wolf pushed his tongue inside though… there was something to be said for werewolf strength. And the way Jared just - okay, so he might have _some_ skills.

In the middle of this revelation, Jensen realized he’d started to pant, his body’s still-ingrained reaction to exertion - or arousal. He didn’t really like this thought, tried to get himself under control. The notion that he could be aroused by this immature man-child… No, it had just been too long, that was all.

By the time Jared drew back, Jensen’s ass was wet, he was half hard and behind him, Jared’s heartbeat had quickened and Jensen could smell the wolf’s pheromones.

“Ready?” Jared asked and Jensen could hear the taunt despite Jared’s slightly ragged breath.

He clenched his teeth. “Do your worst.”

“Oh my god,” Jared muttered. “Just… be quiet.”

Jensen was tempted to reply, but they really needed to get this over with. He heard Jared shifting around behind him, felt the heat his werewolf body was giving off and then there was pressure against his opening.

Trying to relax wasn’t easy, but he managed and after a few thrusts accompanied by frustrated huffs, Jared finally slipped inside.

“Shit.” Jensen had seen how big Jared’s dick was, but it was different to actually _feel_ it.

“You okay?” Jared asked and he might try to sound concerned, but he was more smug than anything.

Fucking mutt. Jensen would not give him the satisfaction of… anything.

“I’m good. Just get it over with.”

Jared sighed. “And again with the charm.” Then the wolf started fucking him.

Jared set a fairly smooth rhythm, hard and fast, but nothing Jensen couldn’t handle and certainly nothing overwhelming. It felt good, sure - it had been a while that Jensen had been touched like that - but Jensen definitely wasn’t running over to the wolf camp just from this.

After a while, he realized he was pushing back, falling in the familiar pattern of back and forwards, pressure and friction. Occasionally, Jared would change the speed or push in deeper, but Jensen tried not to think too hard.

“Fuck. It’s not-” Jared broke off. “Dammit Jensen!”

“What?” Jensen asked, pissed off by the accusation in Jared’s voice.

The were huffed. “It won’t-” he gave a particularly hard thrust, sending Jensen skittering over the cot’s thin mattress. “It’s not enough.”

“What’s not enough?”

Jared’s grip on his hips tightened. “This.”

Jensen turned his head back to glare at Jared. “Excuse me? Are you saying I’m not good enough?”

Jared scowled. “Not like this, not for, not for my knot to pop, okay? There need to be feelings involved-” Jensen huffed at that. “And pheromones and passion and you kneeling there like an inflatable sex doll really doesn’t help.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t help it if you’re a mediocre lay,” Jensen shot back. And wasn’t that an awkward discussion to have, with Jared’s dick still in his ass. Even though he had quit moving now.

“Oh that is it,” Jared bit out, eyes flashing yellow.

He put his hand on Jensen’s neck and pressed him face down onto the cot, making his back arch.

“Yeah, much better.”

 

 

  


 

 

Jensen was just about to go for an indignant reply, when Jared pushed in deep, deeper than before and for the first time hit Jensen’s prostate.

There was no way to stop that surprised moan from leaving his mouth, but the pillow muffled it at least.

Jared kept gripping his neck, claws extended and drawing blood, and it should piss Jensen off, this blatant display of domination, but his dick was hard and leaking. Usually, Jensen was the one to manhandle his partners, push them into the bed and ride their dicks, but then usually he slept with humans.

The last time he’d slept with a vampire had been more fighting leading to a blood orgy than sex, so this was the first time he was getting fucked by somebody who could actually take him. Maybe.

It was… different, to say the least. But then Jared growled, anchored his hands deeper in Jensen’s sides and moved his hips faster. He pushed Jensen down with every thrust until Jensen was lying belly down on the cot, friction of the mattress so good on his dick while the sparks of pain radiating from Jared’s claws enhanced every burst of pleasure.

His hands scrambled to get a grip, and he felt his own nails growing, digging into the mattress to find some kind of leverage, but Jared didn’t let him, gripped him around the chest and pulled him up and back into his lap.

Gravity pulled Jensen down even deeper on Jared’s dick and he thought he’d choke on it. Then Jared’s hot breath was there, right there on his neck, sharp canines scratching along his skin and Jensen’s head fell back on its own volition, a long groan escaping from his mouth. The scent of their combined pheromones was cloying up his senses, the scent of werewolf too much, blanketing him in an almost suffocating manner and he needed air, needed to get away.

He started to struggle in Jared’s arms, but the werewolf apparently took that as a challenge, because he gripped Jensen tighter, pulled him back into his lap, sinking his canines into Jensen’s neck. Jensen wanted to push him off, no marks he’d said, but he couldn’t protest, everything was heat, all consuming, leaving no room for anything else.

“C’mon,” Jared rasped into his neck, “Submit. Submit to me.”

Jared’s hand came around his middle and gripped Jensen’s dick, stroking him too tightly, rhythm choppy but Jensen pushed up into the wolf’s fist anyway, craving more.

More, they needed more, Jared needed him to submit, and Jensen didn’t know how, so he just reached back, got a hand in Jared’s long hair and tugged harshly.

“Take it. You want something, take it.”

Jared snarled, wrapping one large hand around Jensen’s throat and then he bit down again, in a different spot, directly above his collarbone and while Jensen could feel his blood running down his chest, the pressure in his ass expanded.

He pressed back as best as he could, and Jared ground his hips up in slow circling movements until Jensen thought it was too much, it would rip him apart and maybe it did, but he didn’t care. The familiar tightening was building low in his gut, the need to come almost unbearable.

The air was filled with the stench of sex and blood and Jensen was hungry for more, hungry for all of it, so he snapped his head around and buried his teeth in the back of Jared’s neck. Jared howled against his neck and came deep inside of him, fist clenching around Jensen’s dick hard enough to make him come too, orgasm exploding through him in a rush of heat.

Jared collapsed onto his back and Jensen didn’t have the presence of mind to keep them up. They fell forwards onto the thin mattress. For a moment, the feeling of Jared’s warm body on his back was soothing, but then the sense of suffocation came back and Jensen elbowed Jared into his side.

“Get your heavy ass off of me.”

Jared grumbled something unintelligible into Jensen’s neck before taking his weight off of him. “What happened to your vampire strength? Did I fuck that out of you?”

“Please,” Jensen scoffed. “But I don’t need to cuddle with a fucking mutt, so if you could just remove yourself from me?”

Jared pulled his hips back, tugging painfully at Jensen’s ass. “If you want me to rip you open, I can.”

Jensen debated the burst of pain and the time it would take to heal, versus sharing close space with a naked, sweaty Jared reeking of sex. He decided on the latter, simply because he wasn’t that bothered by it. He wasn’t. So they’d had great sex, but after fasting even the stalest bread tasted like divine cake. Besides, the whole werewolf sex-pheromone attack had overwhelmed his senses.

“Fine,” Jensen said eventually. “But no cuddling.”

Jared snorted, but he somehow managed to twist his upper body away from Jensen so they were only touching where they were connected by Jared’s knot.

Since breathing meant getting lungfuls of their mixed sex smells, Jensen decided to stop for the time being, even if it felt uncomfortable and he had to actively remind himself not to do it. What he couldn’t tune out though was Jared’s even breathing and his heartbeat slowly calming down into a deep soothing baseline, lulling Jensen into a doze.

He wasn’t sure how long they lay like that, but when he was alert to his surroundings the next time, their bodies were no longer connected. Jensen stretched his muscles, a slight soreness still lingering, especially in his neck - Jared was right, born wolves’ teeth did do more damage. Jared made a mumbling sound, clearly asleep, rolled himself around and half on top of Jensen, slinging an arm across his middle.

Jensen contemplated throwing Jared off the cot and while he wouldn’t have hesitated a week ago, now it felt… childish maybe? Jared was warm and alive, two things Jensen desperately needed. He hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself, but now, lying mellowed out on this cot, Jensen realized what only a few weeks away from everything that used to ground him had done to him.

He’d fallen into the coldness again and now Jared was keeping him warm and alive. Jensen snorted at himself. This whole mushy insightfulness was overshooting his goal by a mile. Still. The way Jared snuffled into Jensen, clearly ignoring the vampire smell he must be giving off, it was kind of adorable.

Great. Next, Jensen was going to develop a heartbeat. He closed his eyes, hoping to get his equilibrium back by the time he was well rested.

 

 

 

 

He didn’t. According to Jared, after extensively sniffing Jensen, having sex one time was not nearly enough. Jensen didn’t smell even remotely close enough like _mate_.

Privately, Jensen thought there was nothing _but_ werewolf to smell and that he’d never get the stink out of his bones, but unfortunately it was Jared’s call. So they continued to fuck.

One of the new hunters, her name was Nicky, came to fix the camera the day after their first time - Jared’s words, not Jensen’s. Jensen wasn’t happy that the hunters could see - not because he was a prude, thank you very much, he was just not a freaking exhibitionist like Jared - because what if they figured out their plan?

Jared just snorted. “They’ll just think we’re blowing off some steam. Although it would help if you were more enthusiastic about the whole thing.”

“Like I said, mediocre lay.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

 

 

The thing about Jared’s mediocre abilities though? It really wasn’t true. But it spurred Jared on, and each time his attempts to make Jensen fall apart were more elaborate. After the first time Jensen knew what to expect and he stopped breathing so he wouldn’t get smothered by the sex smells again. He was apparently enthusiastic enough to make Jared pop his knot, but he wasn’t going to give the mutt the satisfaction of turning into a begging mess.

This time though, Jared didn't rise to the bait. Not exactly. “Because you’re so much better,” he scoffed.

Jensen just gave him a condescending smile. “Of course I am. I make you come your brains out, don’t I?”

Jared rolled his eyes. “Dude, I’m always stupid after sex. And since I do most of the work and you just kneel there… I think I’m the one who deserves the credit.”

It was a cheap play, Jensen knew it. Jared wanted to rile him up, obviously. It wasn’t without truth, what he’d said, Jensen hadn’t really been trying. If he had though…

“If you want to take credit for _that_ , sure,” Jensen finally answered.

Jared just smiled. “Chicken.”

“If you think I’m going to pull a Marty McFly on you, I’m sorry to disappoint.”

For a moment, Jared was dumbstruck, then he laughed. “Sure, whatever gets you through the day. Although it’s weird, you know. If it’s so mediocre, why not make it better? If you could?”

And well. Jared made a solid argument. They could have good sex. Jared’s dick was definitely one of the bigger specimens Jensen ever had the pleasure of getting acquainted with. Then there was the whole Jared was a werewolf factor, meaning Jensen wouldn’t have to be careful.

“Screw it.”

Something told Jensen that this might be a bad idea, but he wasn’t sure which part of him that was and why, not when Jared looked hilariously surprised that Jensen was suddenly straddling his lap.

“You want good? I’ll be the best you ever had.”

“Oh yeah?” Jared asked, eyebrows raised in challenge. “You gonna fuck me?”

Jensen scoffed. “I don’t need to fuck you to show you how it’s done.”

Jared’s incredulous huff turned into a moan as soon as Jensen dragged his teeth down Jared’s neck.

“We’ll see,” the were muttered.

Jensen just grinned against his skin, fingers softly running down his sides before he put his mouth to the hollow of Jared’s throat and bit down. Hot blood flooded his mouth and Jensen had become so accustomed to Jared’s taste, the overwhelming aroma almost didn't bother him anymore.

“That’s cheating,” Jared managed to get out, but his breathing was already laboured and his heartbeat was speeding up.

Jensen drew back, pushing Jared down onto the hard floor. Slowly, he dragged his mouth down Jared’s impressive chest, over his thumping heart and Jensen thought he could actually hear the sound of the blood rushing through Jared’s veins.

Jared shuddered under Jensen’s tongue, leaned up into his touch and Jensen carefully traced the ridges of Jared’s abdominal muscles.

“That wasn’t cheating,” Jensen murmured into Jared’s hip. “But this is.”

“Wha-” Jared’s voice trailed off into a broken moan when Jensen pulled Jared’s jeans down and buried his teeth in the crease of Jared’s thigh. Not in the femoral artery, but at an extremely sensitive and vulnerable point close to it, and Jared gripped Jensen’s hair tightly, claws scratching lightly along his scalp.

“Oh fuck, you fucking bloodsucker, this is-”

Jensen sucked harder and Jared almost screamed. With a satisfied smile, Jensen moved on. He licked along the underside of Jared’s dick, reveling in its length and thickness, before sucking it into his mouth to get it wet. He hadn’t planned on giving Jared a blowjob, but once he started, he didn’t want to stop.

He’d missed this, the rush of power, the helpless noises and compulsive grips in his hair, the involuntary thrusts, the endless demand for more and more just because Jensen put his mouth there. Coming from Jared, it was even better. There was nothing left of the wolf’s usual smugness and when the base of Jared’s dick started to swell, the were’s wordless moans turned into actual pleas for Jensen to just get on his dick already.

If Jensen wasn’t so turned on himself, he might have made Jared suffer. As it was, he wet his fingers with spit, pushed two of them inside himself. It was always rough at first, until Jared’s dick started leaking more precome, but this time, Jared was already so wet, it would be an easy slide.

Jensen climbed on top of Jared’s body and positioned himself under Jared’s hungry stare. It was the first time he was able to see his face during sex, and it made a flash of heat shoot through his body, how Jared’s eyes were dark from lust-blown pupils, occasional flashes of yellow in his irises.

Jared’s hands came up to grip Jensen’s hips when he lowered himself on Jared’s dick and they moaned in unison. Then it was all heat and friction, Jared’s hands running reverently across Jensen’s skin, claws scratching his chest and back.

They didn’t last long, Jared’s knot already swelling, and when Jensen stroked himself, getting himself off on Jared’s dick and the completely destroyed expression on his face, spurting all over Jared’s stomach, the wolf came with a howl that was more animal than human.

Jensen was panting, and he couldn’t stop, body burning like it hadn’t for a long time and he leaned forwards, supporting himself with his hands on the cool ground.

“Told you so,” he said, and he had trouble recognizing his own voice.

Jared just hummed, letting one big hand fall on Jensen’s neck and pulling him down on his chest. They were sticky and Jared was sweaty, but Jensen didn’t mind.

He didn’t realize that he wasn’t even bothered by the smells anymore, didn’t feel smothered or suffocated until Jared’s knot had gone down and they stood up to clean up. He just felt comfortable.

It was hard to catalogue this feeling at first, it had been so long since he’d last felt this way. With the feeling came the memories of losing it. It never lasted, never could, because Jensen wasn’t cut out to live in a manner that would make people want to give him affection.

Angry at himself, Jensen turned away, stepping under the shower and washing all the traces of sex away. It wasn’t sensible to become attached to something that was only created as an illusion anyway. Down here, forced together in 90 square feet of darkness and desperation they found a comfort in each other that could never survive in real life. Jensen couldn’t afford to rely on something that wouldn’t be there if they ever got out of here. Something that wouldn’t last for long and would leave a bigger hole behind.

He’d only tried to intentionally find an anchor in a living thing once, a stray cat that had taken up residence in the alley behind his apartment in London. They had become something like friends, both solitary creatures of the night, finding solace in each other. The scars of leaving the only coven he’d ever known, when he’d realized how much he’d wanted to be there until he had to leave, still hadn’t healed. So Jensen had named the cat Amanda, after the former, permanently scowling landlady that had rented out the house next to Felicia’s, and when the cat had died after six years together, it had ripped a hole in Jensen’s life he hadn’t thought possible. He had tied his emotions and ability to care so closely to her that, without that anchor, it seemed like nothing could keep him in the human world anymore. He’d drifted and only the fact that he’d traveled the world, a new city every week, visiting places he’d never seen before, had kept him sane. Looking back he’d realized Amanda had been a band-aid, trying to cover the pain of leaving Felicia and the coven.

He’d gone back to his maker then, asking for guidance, only to find that there was none to be had.

“Considering we just had amazing sex, you look incredibly unhappy.” Jared’s voice ripped Jensen out of his thoughts and he scowled at the wolf.

“My thoughts are my business.”

Jared raised his hands placatingly and pushed past Jensen towards the shower. “Sure, whatever.”

 

Later, when they were both clean and more or less dry, Jared sat down next to Jensen on the cot. He hadn’t bothered with clothes and Jensen stared at a triangle of moles over his left hipbone.

“If you want to talk,” Jared said, “I can listen.” Then he shifted and laid down on the cot.

He put his head on Jensen's leg and wagged his tail once.

Jensen snorted but after a while he found himself talking.

“I was just thinking of my maker.” Jensen wasn’t ready to talk about Felicia yet, about his own failures. Talking about Timothy was safer. At least there Jensen wasn’t at fault. “He was very old, very powerful. His anchor was a human woman, the love of his life. She didn’t want to become immortal, so he had to watch her die. She had children before she met him, so after she died, he became her family’s, well, guardian angel is not exactly the right word-” Jared chuffed. “But he followed their fates, helped out whenever he could. For generations, that was what he did. He studied, everything from astronomy to botany and watched over her family. When the last descendant died, he was lost. He tried to bury himself in his research, but it wasn’t enough. The first time he drank someone dry, he realized he’d become the monster she would never have wanted him to be.”

Jensen stopped, thinking of the relief in Timothy’s eyes when he’d found him. It was a memory that had always made him uncomfortable and he was glad that Jared’s fur under his hand was warm and soft, a grounding feeling.

“He went back through the family tree and found the one person that had emigrated to the Americas. Not a very successful line and by the time Timothy found me, I was the only one left.”

Jared’s ears twitched, obviously more interested now that the story had turned to Jensen.

“I was living in Texas. Not a lot of fun back then. My family had died when I was young and the local smith had taken me in. It was a hard life and I was bored. I knew I didn’t fit in, especially not since I had no intention of marrying. People were already talking. When Timothy showed up, I said yes without even thinking about it. He offered me the world.” Jensen laughed. “Unfortunately the world is not all it’s cracked up to be when you realize your ability to feel almost completely disappears the moment your heart stops beating.”

Jared’s nose nudged his belly, clearly saying _you’re not that bad_.

“I make do. You learn to find different kinds of joys.”

Jared made a whiny noise that sounded inquisitive.

“Timothy?” Jensen asked and Jared nodded. “He was… he tried to be a good mentor. And he was, in a way. He taught me everything I needed to know. But he had hoped that I could be his anchor. Apparently I look like her; same eyes, same smile. But we never felt that way towards each other. I think, on a level, he’d always looked out for a reincarnation of her and never found it. I was his last shot and it didn’t work. We traveled together for a few years, but then we split up. The next time I saw him, he was climbing into his own grave.”

An old mausoleum, built by one of Jensen’s great-great-great uncles, out of use for centuries had served as Timothy’s final resting place.

“If it becomes too boring, I shall return,” he’d said before Jensen hat put the heavy stone lid in place. The both knew it was highly unlikely. Once a vampire chose to go to sleep, they stayed there.

If Jensen had expected Timothy’s death to change anything, he’d been wrong. Despite being his maker, they’d never really formed a deep connection. Timothy had already been too dead and Jensen too blinded by the excitement of being a newborn vampire to notice how much he was losing himself.

“So either you become the bloodthirsty monster your kind thinks we are or you just slowly continue to die until your mind is as dead as your heart.”

Jared gave a short howl and Jensen patted his head. “Or you find an anchor, yes.”

He was sure that Jared wanted to ask more, wanted to know about Jensen’s anchor, but Jensen didn’t want to talk about it. His methods had never been all that successful and being down here, seeing how quickly he came to rely on a person he actually detested - well, it didn’t give a lot of credit to Jensen’s techniques. But that was nothing he wanted to share with Jared.

“Go to sleep, Jared. It’s only seven days until the full moon; you’ll need your strength.”

 

 

 

 

“So you finally found a good way to pass the time.”

Alaina and Benito were standing on the other side of the bars. Benito looked disgusted, but Alaina was smirking.

For the first time, Jensen wished he could just turn into an animal. He really didn’t want to have this conversation.

Jared saved him by laughing and raising an eyebrow. “Jealous much? You two don’t smell like you’re having a lot of fun up there.”

Benito scowled. “There are more important things in life than having fun.”

“That’s just sad, man,” Jared said and clicked his tongue. “Besides, I know for a fact you jerk off every night. It gets especially… intense after you were in close contact with a certain blonde-”

“Shut your fucking mouth!” the hunter interrupted him too late.

Alaina was already smirking cruelly. “Really? You have the hots for little Nicky? That girl could be your daughter, you pervert.”

“She’s twenty-five,” Benito bit out and turned to leave.

Alaina’s cackling laughter followed him up the stairs. Before she walked out of sight, she turned around to them, winked and mouthed a thanks. Then she was gone.

“How did you know?” Jensen asked as soon as the door closed behind the hunters.

Jared grinned self-satisfied. “Like I said, I could smell it.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

Jared shrugged. “I thought you knew. Heard something.”

He’d heard Benito jerk off, but he hadn’t made the connection to his encounters with Nicky.

“Besides,” Jared continued happily, “I wanted to save it for maximum impact. He’ll never hear the end of it. And if I know Alaina, she’s totally gonna tattle on him. Should be fun.”

“You’re such a child,” Jensen just said although secretly he thought Jared was right and it was a smart move to bring it up now. They could use all the discord in the hunter camp they could get.

 

 

 

 

“You know, I always wondered how you mysterious vampires finance your lives?” Jared mused out loud while he was eating his meal of the day - Whataburger, and seriously, Jared expected the heart attack any day now, werewolf metabolism notwithstanding. Quizzing Jensen on his life was a good distraction from the fat overkill, pun fully intended. “Like, do you steal from your unsuspecting victims? Are you kept... vampires? Or do you all just have mysterious stashes of money and jewelry? Old bonds, like the original Microsoft shares?”

Jared thought it was a testament to his persistence that Jensen didn’t even sigh anymore. He knew there was no escaping Jared’s curiosity.

“You watch too many bad movies,” Jensen said dryly. “And teen TV shows.”

Jared pointed a cold fry at Jensen. “Takes one to know one. And seriously, Damon Salvatore is fucking hot.”

“Have some class,” Jensen scoffed. “If you want to lust after fictional vampires at least go for Louis de Pointe du Lac.”

Of fucking course Jensen would remember Brad Pitt’s character’s full name. “If you want blond, Eric Northman is hotter, because less broody. And trust me, you brood enough for a whole coven.”

“I don’t brood, Jared, I just take our situation seriously.” But Jared thought he could hear a smile in Jensen’s voice. Score.

It took him a while to realize Jensen had weaseled his way out of answering Jared’s question.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Ten points for figuring that out,” Jensen said dryly.

It had become a game to try to remember the most appropriate pop culture reference he could come up with and see if Jensen recognized it. This time Jared went back to something he’d been saving for days.

“ _You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance._ ”

“The Mummy? Really?” Jensen asked exasperated.

“You’ve seriously seen The Mummy? And liked it enough to remember?”

Jensen stared angrily at the ceiling. Oh no, this was too good to let go.

“Is there anything you don’t watch? The Mummy,” Jared said incredulously. “I mean, weren’t you bitching through the whole movie, ‘that’s not how you dressed back then’, ‘that’s not how you-’”

“Jared, can you just shut the fuck up?”

Jared did, but only because Jensen sounded legitimately exhausted. Annoyed, but defeated somehow. He definitely crossed a line there, made Jensen genuinely unhappy and it did things to Jared’s heart. Made it clench in regret. Probably out of pity. It didn’t look like Jensen had friends or family, he was just a loner vampire and with the non-frequency he smiled, he could say all he wanted, but he wasn’t happy with his life.

“Sorry,” Jared finally said. Not that Jensen would care.

To his surprise, Jensen huffed. “It keeps me human,” he said, then smiled self-deprecatingly. “Well, human-like.”

Jared sensed a rare chance to actually try to figure out the puzzle that was Jensen, so he slowly sat up, trying not to seem too eager.

“What do you mean?”

Jensen was silent for so long, Jared thought he might not answer, but then he spoke. “Stuart was right about us. We are dead. Most of us don’t realize what it means. There are no emotions anymore, you just don’t care. So we find other ways to feel. Blood is good. Power. I don’t know why, but the negative emotions, they’re easier to harness.

“Some of us look for enlightenment. Become scholars, researchers. Where do we come from, where do we go, what’s the meaning of all this. They are the ones who eventually fade, go to rest.”

“Why?” Jared asked.

Jensen looked at him. “Because they never find any answers.” He looked back up at the ceiling. “And some of us want to stay human. Happy. They find anchors, things they care about. Some become collectors. Jewels, art, stamps. I once knew a guy who collected purple buttons. It doesn’t matter what it is, if only it anchors you. Gives you purpose and caring. I never found that. So, I read. Watch TV. Bathe in the emotions of others.”

“Does it work?” Jared asked.

“You tell me.”

Jared thought about it. About how cold Jensen was, how calculating. How much he liked to use words as weapons. How little he cared about human lives. How he’d come back to save Jared’s life instead of escaping without him.

“You could do better,” was what he finally settled on. “But you’re not a lost cause.”

Jensen laughed, sharp and surprised. “You don’t have to woo me, Jared. I’m already letting you fuck me.”

“That-” Jared broke off and stared at Jensen. “Dude.”

“Don’t dude me.”

“Okay, grumpy, I think you need some cuddles.”

By the time Jensen turned his head to glare at him, Jared had already shucked the jeans and shifted. Jensen gave a long suffering sigh, but he did sink his hand into the thick fur of Jared’s back. Jared didn’t know why it felt like a victory, but it did.

 

  

 

 

“So what did you do before they had movies?”

They were lying together on the cot. It was a tight fit, so they were pressed against each other head to feet. Jensen had made Jared take a shower before. As a matter of fact, since they started project scent-sharing, Jensen insisted on Jared showering twice a day. Jared protested that constant showering wasn’t helping to spread his scent and Jensen argued he was only able to stand so much of Eau de Jared. So Jared showered twice a day and he thought he started smelling more like the disgusting soap than himself.

“What do you mean, before the movies?” Jensen asked, pushing Jared’s legs towards the edge of the cot to make more room for himself.

Jared moved his legs back. “You know that cuddling kind of requires physical contact, right? And I mean, back in the day, the 1800s, you know, what did you use as an anchor?”

Jensen poked his legs sharply. “We are _not_ cuddling. And just because there were no movies, doesn’t mean there was no display of emotion, no entertainment. Have you never been to a theater, you heathen? A concert? Wait, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know.”

“When we get out of here, I really have to buy you that pearl necklace.”

Jensen kicked Jared in the shoulder. “I’m going to enjoy choking you with it.”

“You’re so mean,” Jared sighed theatrically. “We’re never gonna be true mates like that.”

There was no verbal answer, but Jensen’s disapproving snort said more than a whole movie.

  

 

 

 

“Are you a call-boy?”

This time, Jensen did throw Jared off the cot. Jared just shook it off and tried to give Jensen a sympathetic expression.

“Is that why you don’t want to tell me what you do for money? It’s okay Jensen, you can tell me.”

Jensen rolled his eyes and it was so beautiful, Jared wished he had a judge’s sign with a number ten on it to hold up. As it was, he had to settle for applauding.

“Mentally you're still five years old, right?” Jensen asked.

Jared crawled back up on the cot and took Jensen’s hands even though he tried to pull them away. “Jensen, you still haven’t told me.”

There was a glint in Jensen’s eyes and the corners of his mouth were twitching.

Jared couldn’t believe it. “Oh my god, you fucker, you’re just not telling me to torture me!”

Leaning back, Jensen wrenched a hand free and patted Jared’s head. “Another ten points. I knew there was still hope for you.”

“Asshole.”

“Does that mean I get my personal space back now?”

Jared grinned. “No way.” Then he took off his jeans and shifted.

Sometimes, when they’d cuddled long enough and Jensen forgot that Jared annoyed him, he’d pet him. It was an absent-minded movement, like Jensen had owned a pet in another life. There were werewolves who thought being petted like a dog was offensive, but Jared had always thought that was ridiculous. He was a tactile guy and he loved getting his head scratched, never mind if he was in his human or wolf shape. And Jensen had mad scratching skills.

Surreptitiously, Jared pushed his head under Jensen’s hand and he was rewarded with Jensen reflexively moving his fingers through Jared’s fur.

He wasn’t sure if he was ready to think about what this meant, the easy camaraderie they’d fallen into, how unbothered they were by sharing space and touches. Jensen was still a vampire, but Jared had come to suspect that there were more emotions buried in that cold, still chest than Jensen liked to admit. Jared wondered what it would be like to dig them out, if he’d like what he’d find. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to take a risk like that, but when Jensen moved his fingers with more purpose and started telling Jared about the first Muhammad Ali fight he’d seen, Jared had a creeping feeling he didn’t have a choice anymore.

  

 

 

 

It was when Jared tried to build a fort out of his waffle fries and joked about his roommate Chad probably selling his video game collection on ebay by now that Jensen snapped.

“Jesus fuck, can you never take anything seriously?”

“The world is serious enough, don’t you think?”

“Don’t go all philosophical on me, it doesn’t become you.”

“Hey, I was just answering your question.”

Something in how he said it must have given him away because Jensen was looking at him, really looking, green eyes boring into Jared, like they could see into his soul.

“Is this about your parents?”

Jared crushed the fries in his hands. “What?”

“The reason you don’t take anything seriously. Is that because of your parents?”

“Really?” Jared asked angrily. “You’re the one watching shitty reality TV so you don’t turn into an unfeeling monster and you judge _my_ coping mechanism?”

Jensen quirked his lips. “Fair enough.”

Jared was so surprised, he toppled his fry fort over.

  

 

 

“I lived with a coven once.”

“Huh?” Jared looked up from his meal, ketchup smeared in the corner of his mouth.

Jensen made a noise between amusement and frustration. “You asked about my coven once.” He wasn’t sure what made him want to share this particular part of his life now, but somehow, without Jared’s constant chatter, the cell became smaller, the walls thicker. Choking him even though he didn’t need the air.

Slowly, Jared swallowed and put his soggy burger down. “So you did have a coven?”

“Not really.” Jensen snorted at himself. He hadn’t really had _anything_ in his life. “I met a young vampire and we became friends. She was… extraordinary. I’ve never met a vampire so full of life, so good. She is just that, pure and good. She likes to help people.”

Jared was smiling at him now. “Her, I’ve got to meet.”

“Her name is Felicia. She and her coven live in San Diego.” Jensen paused, pretending to think. “She might even like you.”

Jared let out a bark of laughter. “If you say so.”

Jensen couldn’t keep himself from smiling. He knew she would.

It was quiet for a while and Jared went back to eating his meal of the day. Jensen was lost in his memories, remembering Felicia’s pure hunger for life and happiness.

“Why didn't it work out?” Jared’s question pulled Jensen out of his thoughts. “Felicia’s coven and you, I mean.”

“I found out I am not made for stationary life.” Jensen knew his voice was full of bitterness. This was not a time he liked to remember. The growing detachment he hadn’t noticed until it was too late and he was ankle-deep in the blood of the couple he’d slaughtered. Felicia’s understanding look, full of sorrow and pity. The leader’s kind words when she told him they all cherished him, but that he had to leave, that he couldn’t be a part of their group. And the dark hole he’d fallen into afterwards that he’d never really managed to climb out of.

When Jensen looked up, Jared was looking at him with a thoughtful expression.

“What?” Jensen snapped.

“Nothing. I just… It’s weird that you keep living this life you so obviously hate.”

“Would you rather I live my life differently?”

Jared shook his head. “No. The question is, why don’t you?”

Jensen looked away. “Contrary to what you may think, not every vampire wants to become a monster.”

There was only silence after that and when Jensen chanced a surreptitious look at Jared a few moments later, the wolf had finished with his meal but was absentmindedly tearing a napkin into little pieces, looking out into the basement with a faraway look in his eyes.

Jensen closed his eyes. He did not want to know what Jared was thinking about. He did not.

 

  

 

 

The greasy burger bag landed with a dull thud outside of the bars and Jared got up to wash his hands. They hadn’t talked a lot today. Usually Jared was the one to instigate a conversation, but today he’d been quiet.

“Don’t tell me the big bad wolf is nervous?” Jensen asked.

They had whispered at length last night, curled up against each other on the cot, about how they were going to play this. They - well, Jensen - had considered all eventualities, all possible scenarios that could unfold. They were as prepared as they could be with contingency plans for getting thwarted at every stage of their escape, what to do when one of them was too hurt to go on. It was still a long shot if they would make it, but there was nothing more they could do.

Jared still was nervous. Jensen didn’t want Jared to be nervous. A nervous Jared could mess up their plan. A nervous Jared could give them away. A nervous Jared made Jensen uncomfortable, made something in chest constrict, made him feel restless, as if there was something he should be doing. Jensen didn’t like that feeling and he didn’t really know what to do with it. It had been cropping up, now and then, the past few weeks and it was… it was not a good thing.

“Come on, Jared-”

Jared turned around, glaring at Jensen. “Can we just not… this time?”

“Not what?”

“I’m just really tired of the fighting, okay? And if it doesn’t work and this is our last day on earth…”

Jensen scoffed.

Jared looked at him angrily, dragging a hand through his hair. “Yeah, don’t know why I even asked.”

It stung, somehow, that Jared expected to be hurt by Jensen. And even though Jared was going all mushy-we’re-going-to-die-tomorrow on him, if he was being honest with himself Jensen didn’t want to fight either. It wasn’t that he needed comfort or affection or whatever the hell it was Jared was looking for, but he didn’t want to fight.

“Look, I-” he wasn’t really sure how to go from there, but it seemed enough for Jared who suddenly relaxed.

“It’s okay. I mean - I’m sorry I went off like that.”

Jensen didn’t know what to say. He didn’t think Jared had ever apologized.

Jared walked over then and sat down next to Jensen. “Let’s just… do this, and maybe not insult each other.”

Jensen fought off a smile. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Ass.”

“See?”

Jared laughed, loud and uninhibited, dimples coming out while he threw his head back for a moment. Jensen didn’t think he’d ever seen him laugh like that. It did things to him, made him _feel_ things and Jensen needed it to stop.

He ripped his shirt off and stood to take off his pants. Behind him, Jared made a choked off noise and trailed a hand softly over his lower back. Too softly.

“You need to get naked too, you know,” Jensen said, but his voice was missing the bite.

Jared huffed but got up and Jensen could hear the rustling of denim behind him. He didn’t turn around, the air of their cell suddenly filled with something thick and heavy he couldn’t name. For once in their time together, Jared didn’t comment, just stepped up against Jensen’s back and put his hands on Jensen’s hips. Jared’s hot breath tickled the hair in the nape of his neck and then Jared pressed a kiss just below his ear.

“We'll be fine,” he said, almost too quiet to hear. “They won’t know what hit them.”

Jensen wanted to scoff, tell him he didn’t need his reassurance, but instead he leaned back against Jared’s broad chest. Jared’s arms surrounded him, hugged him tight against the wolf and it felt more intimate than anything they’d ever done before.

There was no space between them, Jared’s scent cloying up Jensen’s nose and his heartbeat loud against Jensen’s back. Jared was moving, breathing, heart beating, _alive_ against Jensen’s cold and still body. It was too much.

Jensen turned around, bringing his mouth right to Jared’s pulsepoint and he bit down, letting his fangs descend carefully.

A broken moan made its way out of Jared’s throat while Jensen let his blood flow past his teeth, drank it more greedily than he ever had, and Jared leaned into it, hands gripping Jensen more tightly.

They were both hard, hips jerking forwards, seeking friction while their hands couldn’t stay still. Jared finally ripped Jensen’s mouth away from his neck, “too much, it’s too much, need to leave some-” but Jensen didn’t hear the rest, because yes, it was too much, too much contact, too much blood, too much emotion that he didn’t know how to control.

Somehow they landed on the hard floor, cold to Jared but nothing Jensen could feel. Jared’s face was right above Jensen’s, their noses touching while their bodies moved frantically against each other. Jensen could feel Jared’s breath on his face, on his mouth, their lips almost touching, sharing air Jensen didn’t need.

When their lips touched, Jensen turned his head away, burying it in the crook of Jared’s neck, pressing his lips against the healing tears his teeth had ripped. This was what he knew, this was safe.

Jared made a noise of protest, but he still didn’t say anything, didn’t mock or tease Jensen, just maneuvered himself to lie between Jensen’s legs.

It was rough and hard, only the sound of skin on skin and Jared’s muffled moans resounding off the cell walls. Jensen pulled his face back from Jared’s neck, couldn’t stay close, not when the feeling of pressure was building low in his abdomen and he felt like he was suffocating all over again. He looked up to the ceiling, focused on the cracks in the concrete.

Distantly, he realized Jared had started panting, sounds that formed broken variations of Jensen’s name, other words that he couldn’t know the meaning of, until his orgasm rushed through him, taking his ability to think away for one blissful moment.

 

After, they didn’t talk. Jensen got dressed in the rags his clothes had been reduced to and Jared just sat down naked on the cot, hugging his legs to his body.

The light in the basement was dimming; the sun outside must have started to set.

Jensen thought about finding words to break the silence, but Jared had his eyes closed and head turned away. He wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but then again he might have an idea if he thought about it. It was not a line of thought he wanted to pursue. If they managed to get out, there were things better left down here.

 

 

 

 

The pull of the moon was strong, seeping through his pores, even though the thick walls kept the direct light out. Jared yearned for and dreaded the contact on his bare skin in equal parts. His wolf was craving the moon, wanted to bathe in it, roll around in moonlit grass and howl its longing up to its warm glow. Jared knew he wouldn’t be able to hold on to his humanity, would turn into the animal the hunters accused him of being, mindlessly ruled by his instincts. And he knew where his instincts would lead. He just didn’t know if he’d be able to go back. If he wanted to. If Jensen would let him.

Jensen, who had been silent for the last half hour. Who claimed not to feel, never to feel, but still didn’t want to turn into a monster.

Jared didn’t know how to do this. Because no matter how he looked at Jensen, how hard he tried to see the monster, the enemy, he couldn’t stop. Would never be able to stop. He let out a snort and wondered how he’d missed that their little charade had stopped being pretend. At least for him.

“You okay?” Jensen’s voice was low and hoarse, filled with hidden worry.

Jared tried to give him a smirk, but he guessed it looked more like a grimace. “The pull of the moon is stronger than usual ‘cause I was cooped up down here, you know?”

Jensen nodded. “But it won’t change anything?”

“It shouldn’t.”

They were quiet after that, until Jared couldn’t take it anymore and started pacing. Judging by the light, or lack thereof, the sun had finally set. The moon was slowly rising, gathering strength and the need to shift became overbearing.

Jared pulled in a deep breath, smelled the stale air of the basement overlaid by his and Jensen’s mixed scents. It had become hard to tell where one ended and the other began and Jared could only hope it would save them.

He chanced one last look at Jensen, feeling his canines already elongating against his will.

“See you on the other side,” he said and let the shift take over.

 

Immediately, the pressure lessened. He was a wolf, on four paws, he could roll around under the moon. He breathed in and there it was, the scent of vamp. It made his hackles stand on end, because there was a different scent too, something clean and clear, resonating through his whole being with an undeniable clarity. Mate. He was smelling his mate.

Jensen. Jensen was his mate. Jared remembered their conversations like a dream, something about scent sharing and fooling the wolf, something about faking, but this was not fake. This was real. The moon was telling him the truth.

He didn’t register the clicking and hissing sounds as threats, too occupied by this revelation of mate, until the stinking smoke filled his nostrils. Wolfsbane. Jared shook his head, tried to get the smoke out of his nose. It felt like the fog was creeping into his head, dulling his senses, dulling a part of himself.

“Jared?” a voice asked. His mate’s voice. “Hey, c’mon, focus. Look at me, okay.”

How could he not? His mate was beautiful. Strong and tall, eyes like meadow grass and golden dots littered over his flawless skin.

“Jared! Dammit, you have to fight it.”

Fight? There was nothing to fight, there was only mate.

With two leaps he was up in Jensen’s lap, shuffling his snout under his mate’s ear, just breathing in that scent. There was coldness and a silence that confused him, no heart beat to sound in sync with his, then his mate’s hand carded through his fur, scratched his neck in just the right way, like only a mate could.

“It worked.” His mate let out a laugh of disbelief, then he tumbled them off the cot. “Let’s get on with the plan.”

His mate started to move them, playfighting really, wanting to see Jared’s prowess. Jared immediately jumped back and growled, circling his mate. Jensen got up, eyes glowing and fangs lengthening and he was terrifyingly beautiful. Jared charged and once again they fell to the floor, rolled around until Jensen let him stay on top, baring his neck.

Jared leaned down, carefully closing his teeth around his mate’s neck.

“You have to bite me, dammit,” his mate hissed.

Jared closed his teeth, because of course his mate would want a claiming bite. His mate was strong and hard, _a vampire_ his mind supplied, Jared needed to bite down hard. Cold blood filled Jared’s mouth, tasting of mate and him and it made him want to howl his happiness up to the moon.

The moon he couldn’t see.

He looked around and he realized they were underground, trapped, in a cell. Captured. His mate was captured. He needed to get them out. He needed-

His mate hit him in the face, then pulled him back in.

“Focus, dammit. We need to give them a fight! Come on, Jared, you have to remember. Concentrate!”

Jared was confused. Why would his mate want to fight? They needed to escape, they needed to get out, to the moon.

His mate pulled him in tighter and suddenly the smell of fresh blood filled the air. His mate had cut himself.

“The hunters, Jared! Goddam fucking mutt, knew this was a stupid idea.”

It rushed back to him then, Jensen’s icy tone of voice, the plan, the escape. He needed to pretend to kill his mate so they could escape.

Every fibre of Jared’s being wanted to protest, to shy away, to curl protectively around Jensen, but this was what he had to do. He wrapped his jaws around Jensen’s throat and shook him. Jensen screamed, then stilled.

Jared sat back on his haunches, looked at Jensen pale and unmoving. He couldn’t stop himself from howling.

His attention was ripped away from Jensen when the basement door opened and the hunters came down. Stuart, Alaina, Benito, Nicky and Bowman. Their names flooded his mind, bringing his human memories up. They were all wearing self-satisfied smiles. Jared’s hackles raised.

“Shoot him,” Stuart ordered, “but don’t kill him. We may be able to use him again.”

Bullets came flying at him and Jared tried to evade them, but there were too many and they tore through his body. There was pain, sure, but with the pain he could deal, but then fire started spreading through his body, making him tense up and spasm, unable to control his burning limbs.

_Wolfsbane_ , some detached part of his mind told him. _And not the nice kind._

He heard the door of their cell screech open and tried to crane his head to see the threat. He needed to protect his mate, he needed to protect Jensen. But his body wouldn’t obey and the hunters walked past him, three pairs of legs, carrying long iron sticks with ropes and hooks attached to them.

“Remember, don’t touch him. I don’t want even the slightest contamination of the body.” Stuarts voice was distant, like it was dulled by dense fog.

There was mumbling, but Jared couldn’t understand anything over the roaring in his ears. He just knew they were taking his mate away and there was nothing he could do.

Then the noises intensified, there was screaming, a commotion right next to him, but he couldn’t move his head, couldn’t see. A leg flew through his field of vision, the hunters screamed again, but he could only focus on his mate’s sudden breathing, his snarls and the unmistakable sound of claws ripping through flesh.

His mate was alive and fighting. Through the agony, Jared felt elated. Jensen was alive.

Then there were cool hands - Jensen’s hands - in his fur and if Jared were a werecat, he’d have purred. As it was, he tried to push up into the hands but Jensen was talking and really, Jared should listen, it was all just so fuzzy. Even worse than the one time he and Chad had gotten shitfaced on wolfsbane liquor.

He heard Jensen sigh, put out, but he’d heard that sigh a hundred times and he knew his mate was only pretending to be annoyed.

Then he was lifted and he realized that Jensen was carrying him out. Up the stairs, and the change in air permeated the confusion in Jared’s mind. They were above ground.

There were more noises then, people yelling and Jared got dumped on the ground. The impact hurt his whole body and the burning sensation intensified. Next to him, his mate was fighting, protecting him, and when an unfamiliar boot stepped next to his head, Jared gathered whatever strength he had and lunged. It didn’t get him far, but he managed to bite into a leg, ripped it open and crunched bones. There was screaming, but then his mate was there, pleased, saying “good boy.”

_Dog jokes_ , a dry voice in Jared’s mind said. _How original._

He didn't know why, but it made him want to smile.

Then they were outside and fresh air filled his nose. The pull of the moon intensified, made him want to stretch and run, howl to the moon, howl with the pack-

_Pack._

It was there, suddenly, the sense of pack and alpha, weak and distant, but _there_ , unmistakable, filling a giant void in him only Jensen’s presence had patched up during the last few weeks.

He was briefly distracted by the sharp pain of nails digging into his chest, but it was only his mate, only Jensen, digging the burning bullets out of his chest. The pain started to recede and the influence of the moon helped Jared to heal and focus.

Jensen left for a bit, then the scent of smoke filled the air. It shocked Jared out of his daze. His heart started rabbiting away in his chest until Jensen was there, green eyes huge, shaking Jared’s shoulder.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay, we’re out.”

And Jared realized that this was a different house, a different time. He was here with Jensen and they were safe. This time, it was Stuart who burned.

 

****  


 

  
**After**

 

“Can you shift?” Jensen asked, serious expression and concern in his eyes.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but for his mate, Jared could. It was his inner instinct to remain wolf under the moon, but for Jensen, he would shift. It hurt, his body still not completely healed, but it was worth it for the relief on Jensen’s face. With his human body, the last of his human thoughts came back.

He didn’t know what to say, too many thoughts competing in his brain, so what came out was, “Any chance you managed to save me a pair of pants?”

Jensen snorted.

“So that’s a no then.”

They were silent for a moment.

“So I assume your alpha is going to come for you now.”

“Yeah.” Jeff. He’d see Jeff again. He smiled, then another gust of smoke carried over to them. “They’re all dead?” he asked with a nod to the burning house.

“Yeah.” Jensen’s voice was flat.

“On a scale of fluffy Ewok to Emperor Palpatine, how much did you enjoy killing them?”

Jensen’s mouth twitched in the ghost of a smile, then his expression hardened. “More than I should.”

And Jared hated the look of self-loathing in Jensen’s eyes.

“They held us prisoner for a month. They tortured us,” he tried.

Jensen shook his head.

“They would’ve killed us.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“So go binge-watch some Sherlock,” Jared said, realizing how ridiculous that sounded, but he couldn’t give up. “All the feels, right?”

Jensen didn’t even roll his eyes. “It wasn’t really working before, why should it now?”

“But you didn’t kill anyone. Right?” Jared hated that it came out as a question.

Jensen’s smirk was cruel. “No- But keeping yourself from killing someone based on moral reasons, that’s a decision. Enjoying killing someone when you have to… that’s not something you can control. I told you, only a few of us can avoid becoming monsters, and I’m clearly not one of them.”

Jared pulled in a deep breath. All or nothing. “What if you had a better anchor?”

Jensen's head turned slowly. “What?”

“A better connection to your emotions.”

“No.”

“You know there’s something here, Jensen.”

“You’re a _wolf_.”

Jared scoffed. “Don’t be speciest.”

“Don’t be-” Jensen incredulously shook his head. “You’re a child.”

Jared looked down at his body. “Pretty sure I’m an adult where it matters. Besides, you’re mature enough for the both of us.”

Jensen pinched the bridge of his nose and his eyes started glowing in an eery dark green. “Jared, you are a barely housebroken puppy who never takes anything seriously because you bury all your emotions. I don’t _have_ emotions anymore.”

“Don’t know about that, you seem pretty angry right now.”

Jensen’s eyes narrowed to thin slits. “There is nothing here. We shared a cell for a month. We fucked. Don’t go confusing this with something it will never be.”

Jared got up and angrily walked over to Jensen. His blood was rushing under his skin, the setting moon still a powerful draw.

“You’re scared,” he bit out, getting up in Jensen’s space. “You’re just fucking scared to care again and get hurt. But you won’t, okay? I know exactly what I’m feeling here, you’re my mate and I-”

“I am not your mate!” Jensen yelled and his fangs descended. “It was pretend, Jared!”

Jared lunged forward, grabbing Jensen’s face and pulling him in for a hard kiss. It felt like an eternity, his mouth moving over Jensen’s, the moon over his head and when Jensen’s lips parted, for a split second, everything felt right. Triumph rushed through Jared and he pulled himself back.

“Does this feel like pretend? Like I’m confused?”

“Yes.”

Jared felt like he was drenched with a bucket of ice water. Jensen was incredibly still, mouth pressed into a thin line.

“I cannot imagine how you would think we could ever enter in a relationship,” Jensen said, voice stilted. “You might think I am your mate now but when the moon wanes, so will your feelings for me. As for me, like I said before, I don’t have feelings.”

Jared opened his mouth - he didn’t know if he wanted to protest or call Jensen out on falling back into his bullshit pretentious language, but Jensen cut him off.

“Jared, get it into your fucking head. There is nothing here! Nothing. You’re delusional and I don’t care like that, I just fucking can’t.”

The anger boiling in Jared took over. It filled him, dark and ugly and he stabbed a finger at Jensen.

“Fine. Fuck you, Jensen. Go back to your movies and books, but if you think that that keeps you alive, we have two very fucking different opinions of living. I mean, look at you, you live in a fucking fantasy world because you’re too afraid to live in the real one.”

“I’m not afraid,” Jensen said stoically.

“Then why do you only get attached to things that you don’t have to interact with, huh?” Jared yelled, pacing up and down. “You can walk through life, being a fucking voyeur, but sooner or later, you’re gonna stand in a puddle of blood with a hunter’s gun to your head.”

For a moment, Jensen looked stricken, like Jared had finally managed to get through to him, pierce that cold facade, but then his expression smoothed out.

“And it won’t be your problem.”

Jared was stunned into speechlessness.

Jensen looked at him, then sighed. “Go home, Jared. Go to your pack. Play in the grass, chase some butterflies and get drunk on wolfsbane. You’ll forget about me in no time.”

Two kinds of anger were warring in Jared, the one part wanting to bash Jensen’s head in for undervaluing himself and denying himself the right to feel, and the other part just wanted to bash Jensen’s head in.

When Jensen smirked and said, “Make sure not to walk into a trap again, I won’t be there to help you out,” the last part won out.

“You’re right,” Jared spit out, “I’ll forget you in no time. Not like there was anything to you in the first place, fucking walking corpse.”

Jensen just nodded mildly, the same look he’d given Stuart that first day, turned around and walked off into the forest. Jared stood there until Jensen had disappeared from sight, then he collapsed into the grass.

He looked back at the house, where the fire was still raging on, disintegrating beams and throwing ash onto the grass. His eyes followed the smoke rising up into the sky.

Jeff found him like that six hours later. The fire had mostly died down, but Jared was still staring unseeingly into the charred remains of his prison.

 

  

 

 

 

Jeff was watching him. Had been watching him ever since he came back and he just wouldn’t quit. It was rather annoying. _Rather_. Oh god, now Jared even started thinking like that bastard talked.

“You ever gonna tell me?” Jeff had come over soundlessly and sat down next to Jared at the edge of the clearing.

It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny with a slight breeze ruffling the leaves and the pack was lazing around the big clearing behind Jeff’s house. There wasn’t a human residence within five miles, all the land belonging to the Morgan family.

Jared lived in what was most commonly referred to as the bachelor pad, sharing his space with three other young guys his age. Werewolves were social creatures and it was rare to find someone living on their own. When they didn’t have a family yet or were too old to live with their parents, they tended to room together with other weres their own age, until they found their significant other and wanted the privacy. Werewolf hearing could be a bitch, despite the excellent soundproofing.

Jared glanced at Jeff and there was nothing but patience in his alpha’s eyes. Jared couldn’t look at him.

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“Then why the moping?”

Jared tried to shrug his shoulders nonchalantly. “I had a crap month. I thought I was going to die. The cell, it was so fucking tiny, so dark. I didn’t see the sky for a month, Jeff. I still can’t sleep with my door closed.”

Jeff nodded. “It will get better,” he said.

“I know.”

“That wasn’t what I meant though,” Jeff said after a pause.

“There’s nothing else.”

“Bullshit.”

Jared buried his head in his hands. “I thought there could have been something else,” he said finally, talking into his palms. “But there really isn’t.”

“I can hunt him down and kill him,” Jeff offered, and he only sounded like he was half-kidding.

“Thanks. But it’s better this way. I mean, can you imagine?”

Jeff laughed quietly. “Not really. Sure would’ve been interesting, though.”

They sat in companionable silence, until Jeff suddenly turned his head. Jared heard it a few seconds later, the commotion coming up the hill. Chad broke through the treeline, running for them. Jeff was already up and Jared quickly got to his feet. Chad was flustered and he was never flustered.

“What?” Jeff barked out.

Chad shook his head incredulously. “There’s a vamp down there. And he wants to _talk_.”

Jared was in motion before Chad had finished his sentence. Of course, it could be any vamp but the faintest note of Jensen’s scent, old books and clear skies, had reached Jared. And maybe he had only imagined, wishful thinking, but when he barrelled down the hill, there was Jensen, standing tall and proud surrounded by a ring of pack members, expressions ranging from wary to hostile.

When they saw Jared coming, they relaxed. They’d all heard the story of Jared’s involuntary alliance with a vampire. They knew it could have gone very differently for him in Stuart’s basement.

“Can we talk?” Jensen asked, showing no sign of emotion on his face.

Jared nodded stiffly and led him away from the compound. He could feel Jeff’s eyes on him, heard Chad telling Katie she owed him twenty bucks. He didn’t look at Jensen, just continued to walk until they were out of earshot. He couldn’t think about what it meant that Jensen was here, not when he could be wrong. He didn’t even know if he wanted Jensen here at all.

Which, yeah, okay, bullshit.

“I didn’t stop smelling like you,” Jensen said without preamble.

“What?”

“I still smell like fucking mutt.”

Jared sniffed. “No, you don’t.” It made his heart ache. “You just smell like you.”

Jensen huffed and dragged a hand angrily through his hair. Then he started pacing. Jensen, always still, sometimes not even breathing, Jensen was pacing like a caged animal.

“I fucking know that. And yet I do. It’s like it’s deep in my bones and it won’t go away. Every time I breathe, it’s like I’m surrounded by it, like it’s coming out of my pores.”

“I’m sorry,” Jared offered hesitantly. “But I’m not sure what you want from me, Jensen. It’s not like I can take a non-existent scent back.”

Jensen raised his eyebrow. Fuck, Jared had missed that.

“You cannot possibly be this dense,” Jensen said incredulously.

And well. Usually Jared wasn’t. But Jensen had made it perfectly clear that he wanted nothing to do with Jared. Not like that. Never like that.

“You said,” Jared started, but Jensen cut him off with a sharp gesture.

“I know what I said.”

Jared crossed his arms in front of his chest. “So what are you saying now?”

Jensen made a face. “I still think you’re an immature child. You have no manners, you’re too emotional and you never take anything seriously.” He fell silent, glaring angrily at a point above Jared’s left shoulder.

“Please, continue. I haven't felt this loved in a long time.”

If Jared hadn’t spent a month with Jensen locked up in 90 square feet, he would think Jensen was seriously pissed, glaring the way he did, but Jared could see the defensiveness in it.

“I hate werewolf stink. And I could never, absolutely never live in a pack,” Jensen spat out the word like it was something filthy.

“And yet here you are.” Jared knew he sounded smug, but he didn’t care. Because Jensen was _here_.

Jensen looked even angrier. “This was a bad idea. I don’t even know what I’m doing here. You-”

Jared cut him off with a kiss.

“I’m still not your mate,” Jensen mumbled into his mouth. “I’m not a fucking animal.”

“Too bad,” Jared shot back. “You’re gonna have to deal with a whole pack of them.”

Jensen rolled his eyes. Jared was in love.

He had no idea how they were going to do this, but they were going to try and if they had a few fights along the way, well Jared already knew that the makeup sex would be spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
[Art Masterpost](http://kinkajou.livejournal.com/41807.html) (livejournal)  
               
[Fic Masterpost](http://ashtraythief.livejournal.com/49108.html) (livejournal)

 

 

 


	4. Epilogue II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What comes after. Tumblr ramblings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the anon on tumblr who asked if I ever would write more for this story. My answer was no. Then I elaborated. In a kind of rambling fashion. I edited and expanded it a bit to post it here. Hope you guys enjoy :)
> 
> Original tumblr post [here](http://ashtray-thief.tumblr.com/post/130873263869/29-days-is-still-my-favorite-of-them-all-any#notes).

 

 

Eventually, after a lot of back and forth, a lot of arguing, a lot of make-up sex, some traveling and the construction of a house upwind of the pack grounds, they get their happily ever after. Kind of. It’s happy, mostly, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. 

 

Jensen still has to deal with the werewolf stink and mostly staying in one place though he gets Jared to take short trips with him occasionally. Jared and Felicia get along like a house on fire. Jensen should have known that those two together couldn’t end well for him. But then he watches them smile and laugh and his face is doing that still unfamiliar thing. That smiling thing. So yeah, Jared does that too him. Jensen thinks he’s adjusting quite well to it, given his mostly unchangeable nature.

 

The rest of Jared’s pack is not thrilled to have a vamp in their midst. Especially Chad can’t stop making stupid comments, and there comes a time when he goes too far and Jensen puts him in his place. Chad isn’t a bad fighter, but he doesn’t stand a chance against Jensen. After that, most of the wolves respect Jensen. He even makes a few friends. After Chad brews Jensen a special hawthorn concoction that gets him quite drunk, he and Chad form some kind of truce where they still insult each other, but now it’s with a mutual respect.

 

That still leaves the question of Jensen anchoring himself. He’s got Jared now, sure, but without something to do, he’s kind of going insane. Since the wolves have such a longer lifespan, they live mostly off the grid. A few decades back, Jeff created a ‘religious’ community so the authorities don’t bother them too much.

 

But working on the fields, building and creating things they can sell, it’s not really Jensen’s thing and it drives him up the walls. Jared is different. He loves working with his hands, loves working outside and doing exhausting physical stuff. These days, he’s mostly building furniture, and when he comes home sweaty and covered in wood chips, Jensen rags on his for being a stinking dog. There’s no heat behind his words, and when Jared hugs him despite his protests, it mostly ends in sex. Naturally, it’s shower sex, but shower sex is great. Jared looks good when rivulets of water are running down his body and his long hair fails darkened and heavy with water into his face.

 

Jensen continues telling Jared his stories, who still can’t get enough of Jensen’s voice lulling him to sleep after all this time, and Jeff appreciates the insights on vampire sociology. At some point, the rest of the pack catches on and it’s not unusual that when they sit around outside, having a few drinks on someone’s porch that at some point, someone needles Jensen about a story. It doesn’t take long before the first person says he should write all that shit down. Like a novelist, you know.

 

And Jensen does.

 

He never tells his own story; that’s for Jared alone. But he’s met enough people in his life he wants to give a voice. It helps him calm himself and it gives him an opportunity to stretch his intellect. Jared tells him he’s a snobbish ass, Jensen tells him he’s a heathen and then they have angry sex on the kitchen table. To an outsider, it might look dysfunctional, but for them, it works. Especially when at night, they share a bed, curled up in each other and Jensen slowly drags his hand through Jared’s hair and Jared buries his nose in the hollow of Jensen’s throat.

  
Jensen’s still not sure, exactly, how they fit together, but when Jared is lying pressed up against his side or back, breath ghosting over Jensen’s neck and Jared’s steady heartbeat the rhythm of his life, he realizes, he doesn’t need to know. They fit where it matters, and if they don’t, they have pretty awesome make up sex (to use Jared’s words).

**Author's Note:**

> You can find find me on tumblr [here](ashtray-thief.tumblr.com).


End file.
